Home > 1.1.3.3 Individual submission of candidature > LITHUANIA - Law on Elections to the Seimas
 
 
 
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Article 38
 

Application Documents for the Nomination of Candidates and Forms for the Collection of Voters Signatures


1. Parties must file with the Central Electoral Commission the following application documents:


1) an application for the participation in the election;
2) copies of their registration papers; the party’s programme and the party’s election programme may be submitted as well;
3) the list of candidates nominated in the multi-member constituency;
4) the list of candidates nominated in single-member constituencies;
5) an obligation signed by each nominated candidate to terminate, if he is elected, his employment or any other activities incompatible with the status of Seimas member, the consent to be nominated by this party in a specific constituency, a questionnaire for a candidate for Seimas member filled in by the candidate himself, as well as the extracts containing the basic data from the income tax return and the assets declaration submitted to the State Tax Inspectorate, where such extracts are approved by the tax inspectorate to which the return and declaration have been submitted, as well as a declaration of private interests and a pledge of the form set by the Central Electoral Commission to comply with the prohibition to bribe voters. The party must submit photographs and autobiography of each candidate;
6) an authorisation for an election representative to represent it in the Central Electoral Commission; the party shall also have the right to grant authorisation to represent it and the candidates nominated by it in the constituency electoral committees;
7) a document certifying that a party or a person nominated in a single-member constituency has paid the election deposit; also a notification specifying the account opened in a credit institution registered in the Republic of Lithuania or a branch of a credit institution which is registered in any other Member State of the European Union or the European Economic Area, which operates in the Republic of Lithuania and to which the election deposit subject to refunding will be transferred under paragraph 5 of Article 41 of this Law;
8) if the party nominated candidates or lists of candidates during the last election to the Seimas, the European Parliament or municipal councils, it shall have the right to submit a copy of the relevant report on the funding of political campaign;
9) information about the cash in hand and the funds in the account of state budget appropriations allocated to the political party and in the current bank account which were received during the period from 1 January of the current year to the first day of the month of the submission of the documents.


2. The person who has decided to declare himself to be a candidate for Seimas member must submit to the constituency electoral committee the following documents:


1) an application that he declares himself to be a candidate for Seimas member in this constituency;
2) a signed obligation to terminate, if he is elected, his employment or any other activities incompatible with the status of Seimas member, a questionnaire for a candidate for Seimas member filled in by the candidate himself, as well as the extracts containing the basic data from the income tax return and the assets declaration submitted to the State Tax Inspectorate, where such extracts are approved by the tax inspectorate to which the return and declaration have been submitted, as well as a declaration of private interests and a pledge of the form set by the Central Electoral Commission to comply with the prohibition to bribe voters. The above-mentioned person must submit his photographs, autobiography;
3) a document certifying that a person who decided to declare himself to be a candidate for Seimas member has paid the election deposit; also a notification specifying the account opened in a credit institution registered in the Republic of Lithuania or a branch of a credit institution which is registered in any other Member State of the European Union or the European Economic Area, which operates in the Republic of Lithuania and to which the election deposit subject to refunding will be transferred under paragraph 5 of Article 41 of this Law. An authorisation by a candidate to represent him in the Central Electoral Commission and the electoral committee of that constituency may also be submitted.


3. In the Seimas member’s questionnaire a citizen who has declared himself to be or has been nominated as a candidate for Seimas member must fill in the following data himself: surname, name, number of the passport or the identity card, personal number, date of birth, address of the permanent place of residence, whether or not he has an unserved term of the court-imposed sentence, whether or not he is in the active or alternative national defence service, whether or not he is an officer, non-commissioned officer or re-enlistee of the national defence system, police or the internal affairs service, who has not retired from service, as well as an officer of other military-type or security service, who is on the payroll. Other questions, additionally established by the Central Electoral Commission, may also be included in the Seimas member’s questionnaire, to which the person is not bound to give answers. A candidate for Seimas member must also inform in writing the Central Electoral Commission whether or not he is or was and when a citizen of any other state (other states), and if such is the case, he must present a document confirming the citizenship of any other state (other states), and at the request of the Central Electoral Commission – a document issued by competent institutions of the Republic of Lithuania, any other state (other states), pertaining to the renunciation or the loss of the citizenship of any other state (other states), as well as a written consent of an appropriate form and content so that the Central Electoral Commission might obtain the information from the competent institutions of the Republic of Lithuania, any other state (other states), concerning the candidate’s for Seimas member citizenship of any other state (other states) which he has or had, and the renunciation or the loss thereof.


4. The Central Electoral Commission shall start accepting application documents, with the exception of the filled-in individual forms for the collection of voter signatures, 85 days before and shall end at 5:00 p.m. 65 days before an election day. The documents filed after the deadline for filing the application documents may not be recognised as application documents.


5. Application documents may be submitted electronically. Voters may also, in accordance with the procedure laid down by the Central Electoral Commission, support electronically with their signatures a candidate who has declared himself to be a candidate.


6. The constituency electoral committee shall, within three days, issue to the citizen who has decided to declare himself to be a candidate for Seimas member individual forms for the collection of voter signatures referred to in paragraph 7 of this Article in order to collect signatures of that constituency’s voters who support his self-nomination. Candidates for Seimas member shall either themselves collect voter signatures or charge other voters to perform the task. The person who collected the signatures shall put his signature at the end of the form for the collection of voter signatures and shall be responsible for the collection of signatures according to the procedure laid down in this Law. In the form for the collection of voter signatures a citizen who supports the person’s self-nomination must himself fill in the following data: surname, name, number of the passport or the identity card, date of birth, address of the permanent place of residence, and sign it. Where a citizen who supports the candidate’s self-nomination is unable due to some physical handicaps or for some other reasons to personally write down the required data in the form for the collection of voter signatures, he may request any other citizen with the right to vote, except for the person collecting the signatures, to do this for him. In such an event a statement of the form prescribed by the Central Electoral Commission shall be drawn up and attached to the form for the collection of voter signatures. A citizen who supports the person’s self-nomination as a candidate and has no physical handicaps which would preclude him from filling in his data must himself write down the data in the form for the collection of voter signatures. It shall be prohibited to bribe voters who supported self-nomination, to give or promise to give remuneration for supporting the candidate’s self-nomination also to demand under threat that the person put his signature or in any other way violate the principle of voluntariness. The candidate must return the forms for the collection of voter signatures to the constituency electoral committee not later than 40 days before the election. Having received the forms for the collection of voter signatures, the constituency electoral committee shall verify them not later than within ten days. The constituency electoral committee that verifies the signatures shall count the number of signatures of the constituency voters who supported the citizen’s self-nomination or the list of candidates (candidate) nominated by the party. The following signatures shall not be counted: the signatures of persons who are not eligible to vote, of voters who are not entered on the electoral roll of that constituency; of persons who failed to record all the data prescribed by this Law; if incorrect data have been recorded; all signatures of the citizen who has signed for the self-nomination of the person several times. If it is established that the citizens’ signatures have been forged, that the principle of voluntariness or other requirements of this Law have been violated during signature collection, the constituency electoral committee shall recommend the Central Electoral Commission not to register the person as a candidate for Seimas member. If it turns out, upon deducting the invalid signatures, that the number of signatures prescribed in this Law has been collected in the forms for the collection of voter signatures, the constituency electoral committee shall recommend to the Central Electoral Commission to register the person as a candidate for Seimas member.


7. Signatures of voters shall be collected in an individual form for the collection of voter signatures which contains the following text:


“I, voter, confirm my support for the person (person‘s name, surname, number of the single-member constituency) who has declared himself to be a candidate at the election to the Seimas (election date):


 


Serial No     Voter’s surname, name     Number of voter’s identity card or passport     Date of birth     Address of the place of residence    Signature and date