Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania - History

History

At the beginning of 1994 the law on social organisations was adopted. According to this law, social organisations had to transform into political parties or simply remain social organizations. Till that time the Association of Poles in Lithuania (APL) was a public-political organisation. Thus it had the option to act both in social and political spheres. The Polish community which did not have its own party faced the difficult task of keeping the Association and simultaneously enabling its participation in the political life of Lithuania at the same time. The appointment of the party required a lot of organizational effort. In this situation the central administration of the APL convened 5th Extraordinary Conference of APL on 14 August. During the Conference the decision was adopted to transform the APL into a social organisation and support the efforts of the group initiating the establishment of a party set up under the name of the Electoral Action of the APL. Finally, on 23 October after the pressure from the Lithuanian Ministry of Justice to remove the word ‘Union’ from the name of the party, it was registered as the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (AWPL). During the Founding Conference of 1994 and 1997 Jan Sienkiewicz was elected as an AWPL president. In 1999 during the 3rd AWPL Conference Waldemar Tomaszewski became the president of the organisation. Moreover, Tomaszewski was elected as a president on the 4th and 5th AWPL Conferences.

The AWPL takes part in various elections – starting with municipal through parliamentary and ending with the elections to the European Parliament in 2004. During the whole period of its existence the AWPL took part in defense of the interests of the Polish minority in Lithuania. The Union of the Russians of Lithuania had cooperated with the AWPL in elections, running within a common list in 2004.