Head of Lithuanian parlt's security panel says to back early election motion - BNS INTERVIEW

VILNIUS - The chairman of the Lithuanian parliament's Committee on National Security and Defense says that he will support the opposition's proposal to hold early elections in June.

"(Early elections) would show these 'beavers' who sit and rule the state for Rosatom's money or influence that (...) there is power, society that can put them in their place," Vytautas Bakas, a member of the ruling Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (LFGU), told BNS.

Bakas told his fellow LFGU lawmakers during a meeting earlier in the day that he would vote in favor of early elections.

The opposition registered the proposal after the parliament failed to garner enough votes in a secret ballot on Tuesday to strip Bastys of his mandate despite the Constitutional Court's ruling that the lawmaker had grossly violated the Constitution and breached the oath by concealing his ties with a former KGB agent.

Bakas' committee concluded after a probe that Bastys had acted against Lithuania's interests and that his ties with certain individuals named in a report by the State Security Department had jeopardized national security. 

The findings, endorsed by the full Seimas, served as a basis for launching the impeachment procedure against Bastys.

"The Seimas that lost the battle of Rosatom's interests and the KGB's former interests against public interests, national interests, seems strange," Bakas told BNS.

According to the chairman, it was a public outcry over the parliament's vote that stopped Bastys from continuing his political career.

"Therefore, I conclude that people are perhaps more mature than those they delegated (to the Seimas)," Bakas said. 

"I do not care," he added.