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Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania in elections in Lithuania. How Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania managed to surpass the 5 percent electoral treshold?
Political activity of Poles in Lithuania started around the same time as Lithuanian. The Union of Poles in Lithuania was established at the congress on 15‑16 April, 1989, which transformed the Socio‑Cultural Association of Poles in Lithuania, founded a year earlier – in 1988. In the first parliamentary elections in independent Lithuania, Polish minority was not very active. Looking at the public space, the internal situation in the political elite of the Polish minority in Lithuania and the development of Polish‑Lithuanian relationship as well as election results of AWPL in Lithuania have a noticeable direct relationship. The development of Polish‑Lithuanian relations after the collapse of the Soviet Union can be divided into three stages: 1st from 1990 to 1994, 2nd from 1995 to 2005 period, 3rd from about 2007 to the present time. AWPL is a regional party and its political influence is limited over the whole country. Meanwhile, the party has regionally dominant positions in two municipalities (the Vilnius region and Šalčininkai), and even in the two municipalities (Vilnius city, Trakai) is a influential party. Cooperation of AWPL with Russian parties in Lithuania started already during 1995 elections. Without support of Russian voters and other marginal parties, AWPL would probably not have been able to overcome 5 percent barier for parties in proportional system.

The article analyzes the capacities and channels of Lithuania's minority representation in the European Parliament. Possible minority representation can potentially be achieved through representation of minorities in the electoral lists of Lithuania's mainstream parties or by self-organization around minority coalition led by the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance (EAPL-CFA). However, these two channels demonstrate two different outcomes. First, the article discusses the role of minority representatives in the mainstream parties focusing on the cases of Viktor Uspaskich and Leonidas Donskis. It is followed by the analysis of the electoral performances of the EAPL-CFA with the emphasis on the party's general political capacities, abilities to keep its current and attract the new electorate, and the leadership issues taking into account personalistic factors and a series of scandals that happened in 2018 and involved the leadership of the Union of Poles in Lithuania.

In recent years social networking websites, and especially Facebook, have attracted millions of new users. For that reason, politicians seek to use this interactive space more and more intensively for their goals, most often during the period of election campaigns. This article analyzes the processes of political communication via social networking sites, and discusses the benefits and some negative aspects of these communicational activities. As well, the article presents the analysis of the use of social networking websites during the presidential campaign of 2009 in the Republic of Lithuania. It also presents the results of the municipal councils election campaign of 2011, which reveal various aspects of the use of social networking websites by the candidates. Finally, the article presents the results of the logistic regression model, which allows forecasting the use of social networking websites by politicians during elections.

In recent years social networking websites, and especially Facebook, have attracted millions of new users. For that reason, politicians seek to use this interactive space more and more intensively for their goals, most often during the period of election campaigns. This article analyzes the processes of political communication via social networking sites, and discusses the benefits and some negative aspects of these communicational activities. As well, the article presents the analysis of the use of social networking websites during the presidential campaign of 2009 in the Republic of Lithuania. It also presents the results of the municipal councils election campaign of 2011, which reveal various aspects of the use of social networking websites by the candidates. Finally, the article presents the results of the logistic regression model, which allows forecasting the use of social networking websites by politicians during elections.

This article examines the role of ethnicity in the formation of political cleavage and is based on the analysis of the political agenda of the Polish national minority in Lithuania after the re-establishment of the independent state in 1990. It analyzes the political performance of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (EAPL), an ethnic-based "niche" political party that tends to keep a monopoly over the representation of interests of the Polish minority in Lithuania and collects a vast majority of the votes of citizens of Polish origin. The article considers how specific in comparison to the titular nation the interests of the Polish national minority are, and how different in comparison to the political agendas of other political parties the political agenda of the EAPL is.

Legislators elected on a party list vote (proportional representation system) are ostensibly more disciplined than those elected in single-seat district contests. However, previous efforts to test this hypothesis in cross-national studies have led to ambiguous results, as contextual factors were found to be at least as important as the type of mandate. In the case of Lithuania, which has adopted a mixed electoral system, the behaviour of elected deputies in 962 roll-call votes between 2003 and 2006 reveals that deputies from single-seat constituencies, rather than deputies on party lists, are more disciplined in the Lithuanian Seimas. This unexpected finding may be related to the peculiar dynamics of mixed electoral systems. Adapted from the source document.

The consequence of establishing new Polish state borders after the Second World War was the mass resettlement of citizens of the pre-war Second Polish Republic (II Rzeczpospolita) from the so-called Kresy – now newly established Lithuanian, Belarusian and Ukrainian republics of the Soviet Union – to the Polish People's Republic (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa). The 240,000 Poles, who left the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic as part of the post-war resettlement, were only part of a group of over 1.4 million people resettled to 'new Poland'. With extraordinary strength, they revived the 19th century myth of the Polish Kresy – one of the most important Polish national myths – which soon became an inseparable part of the Polish national discourse and the main element of Polish identity policy towards Poles who stayed in Kresy. This article is an attempt to answer the following question: What is the meaning of and role played by Kresy myth/discourse in constructing the identity of contemporary Poles living in South-eastern Lithuania – on the territory of these mythical Polish Kresy? The article is based on a series of interviews with Poles from Lithuania and representatives of governmental and non-governmental organisations operating for the Kresy, as well as an analysis of the content of these organisations websites with a project offer addressed to Poles in Lithuania.

The article analyzes the European Union's influence on the political participation of ethnic minorities in first and second European elections held after Lithuania's accession to the EU in 2004 and 2009. The author provides a brief theoretical overview of the EU's influence on Member States regarding ethnic minority policy, representation of ethnic minorities and ethnic minority participation in the politics. Analysis of the programs and strategies to attract voters in European Parliament elections of political parties representing ethnic minorities finds that the European issues and European values hadn't significant effect (with exceptions in 2009) on electoral programs and patterns of political participation. However, Polish and Russian ethnic minority political parties in shaping the strategies of the coalition or joint electoral list in 2004 and 2009 EP elections were not directly intended to win seats in the EP, but testing these strategies for the upcoming parliamentary elections in 2004 and municipal council elections in 2011.

The article analyzes the European Union's influence on the political participation of ethnic minorities in first and second European elections held after Lithuania's accession to the EU in 2004 and 2009. The author provides a brief theoretical overview of the EU's influence on Member States regarding ethnic minority policy, representation of ethnic minorities and ethnic minority participation in the politics. Analysis of the programs and strategies to attract voters in European Parliament elections of political parties representing ethnic minorities finds that the European issues and European values hadn't significant effect (with exceptions in 2009) on electoral programs and patterns of political participation. However, Polish and Russian ethnic minority political parties in shaping the strategies of the coalition or joint electoral list in 2004 and 2009 EP elections were not directly intended to win seats in the EP, but testing these strategies for the upcoming parliamentary elections in 2004 and municipal council elections in 2011.

The article analyzes the European Union's influence on the political participation of ethnic minorities in first and second European elections held after Lithuania's accession to the EU in 2004 and 2009. The author provides a brief theoretical overview of the EU's influence on Member States regarding ethnic minority policy, representation of ethnic minorities and ethnic minority participation in the politics. Analysis of the programs and strategies to attract voters in European Parliament elections of political parties representing ethnic minorities finds that the European issues and European values hadn't significant effect (with exceptions in 2009) on electoral programs and patterns of political participation. However, Polish and Russian ethnic minority political parties in shaping the strategies of the coalition or joint electoral list in 2004 and 2009 EP elections were not directly intended to win seats in the EP, but testing these strategies for the upcoming parliamentary elections in 2004 and municipal council elections in 2011.