Lithuanian parties to be gagged during elections?

VILNIUS-- Lithuanian parliamentarians have agreed agreed that video and audio clips on radio and television will be banned during the official campaigning period for October's parliamentary elections, while political advertisements will be regulated by the Central Electoral Committee.

According to amendments to the Law on Financing of Political Parties and Political Campaigns and Financing Control adopted on Tuesday, advertisement of all political parties and their candidates will be organized on a proportional basis so that parties with most votes at the last elections will receive more air time.

Part of the reasoning is that the measure will prevent well-funded but small-scale niche parties from buying up airtime, though it also runs the risk of perpetuating a political status quo.

Petras Austrevicius of the Liberal Movement expressed indignation over the new procedures that the amount of advertisement would depend on the results of last elections and the number of proposed candidates.

"Colleagues, let me say that such principles threaten to be discriminatory and without equal rights, particularly to the newer parties," said Austrevicius.

A member of the Order and Justice Party, Valentinas Mazuronis, dismissed the amendments as "democracy's funeral" and expressed a lack of confidence in the central electoral authority, accusing it of acting to support the ruling parties.

Advertisements of political parties should be financed from the state budget. Calculations suggest that 2 million litas (EUR 0.6 mln) would be needed for this year's parliamentary elections, with money allocated by the Central Electoral Committee that received a total of approximately 27 million litas from the state budget this year.

Earlier this year, the government suggested granting the 2 million litas from the budget grant for parties (20 million litas for 2008), however, groups of political parties opposed the proposal.

If signed into law by the president, the ban on ads of political parties will be in effect throughout the election campaign (a month prior to the Oct. 12 elections).