Illegal Nazi Party candidates vow to will run in elections

VILNIUS (BNS) - The National Socialist Party of Lithuania, despite the Lithu-anian Justice Ministry's refusal to register them, are planning to put forward candidates for the parliamentary elections this autumn. The Lithuanian daily Respublika reported the party is planning to put forward 10 candidates in single-mandate electoral districts.

"To do that we only need to collect 1,000 voter signatures and put up collateral," said party head Mindaugas Murza. Some 71 members of Parliament are elected in single-mandate electoral districts.

Last week the Justice Ministry, after considering the documents presented by the party for registration and citing the Lithuanian law on political parties and political organizations, refused to register the Lithuanian National Socialist Party. The ministry found unconstitutional the positions contained in the party's statutes and platform on ethnic inequality and discord expressed in them. They also violate specific provisions of Lithuanian law on political parties, in the ministry's view.

This is the tenth time Murza's group has attempted to register.

This attempt was to register as a political party, but nine previous times the group tried to register as a social organization called Union of National Socialist Solidarity of Lithuania.

In February, the union announced it was halting its activities, then only a few months later announced the creation of the Lithuanian National Socialist Party in the Lithuanian city of Siauliai.