Home > 1.3.1.1.1 Coverage of the election campaign > LITHUANIA - Law on Elections to the Seimas
 
 
 
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Article 51
 

Conditions and Procedure of Election Campaign


1. After the announcement of the names of candidates and lists of candidates by the Central Electoral Commission, the candidates shall be granted the right to use the Lithuanian national radio and television free of charge. The rules for preparing programs for election campaign shall be approved and the actual duration and time of the Lithuanian national radio and television programs shall be established by the Central Electoral Commission after consultation with the head of the Lithuanian national radio and television. The Central Electoral Commission shall also distribute the time of the programs in such a manner that the following principles of equality are preserved: among the lists of candidates in the multi-member constituency; among single-member constituencies; among candidates in a single-member constituency.


2. Discussions of candidates over the radio and television shall be financed with funds of the state budget from the appropriations allocated for the Central Electoral Commission.


3. The Central Electoral Commission shall:


1) in accordance with the procedure laid down by law, choose producers and broadcasters of discussion programmes;
2) approve rules on producing discussions.


4. Groups of independent participants of political campaign taking part in discussions (consisting of two and more persons) shall be set up by mutual agreement and in the event of failure to reach mutual agreement - by drawing lots.


5. All broadcasters shall enjoy the right to produce, on their own initiative, discussion programmes in compliance with the provisions of the Law on Funding of, and Control of Funding of, Political Campaigns. Other terms and conditions provided for in this Article shall not apply to the said broadcasters.


6. The lists of candidates and their election programmes shall be published by the Central Electoral Commission within 20 days after its submission.


7. The election programmes of candidates who stand for election in a single-member constituency shall be published by the electoral committee of that constituency no later than 15 days prior to the election. The procedure for publishing election programmes shall be established by the Central Electoral Commission.


8. Under this Law outdoor political advertising shall be political advertising communicated to the public by video or audio means. Outdoor political advertising shall also be political advertising which is announced in public areas, buildings, vehicles.


9. It shall be prohibited to install and communicate outdoor political advertising:


1) on the buildings occupied by state administration, law-enforcement and other state and municipal institutions and establishments;
2) inside or outside the means of public transport belonging to state- or municipal-controlled enterprises, with the exception of the cases where the advertising space or video broadcast equipment belong or are transferred for use by third parties who cannot be directly or indirectly subject to a decisive impact by state or municipal enterprises;


Version valid as of 1 January 2019:


2) inside or outside the means of public transport belonging to state- or municipal-owned enterprises, with the exception of the cases where the advertising space or video broadcast equipment belong or are transferred for use by third parties who cannot be directly or indirectly subject to a decisive impact by state- or municipal-owned enterprises;
3) in motorways and their sanitary protection areas, as well as in streets and along the side thereof, if it might block technical traffic regulation means and road signs, decrease visibility, blind traffic participants, distract attention thereof, thus increasing the danger to traffic participants, and also it is prohibited to use advertising that imitates road signs;
4) on sculptures and monuments;
5) within 50 metres around the building which houses a polling station;
6) without the consent of the owner of the land, construction works or other structures on or in which it is being set up;
7) repealed.


10. Outdoor political advertising on/in protected territories and immovable cultural properties, as well as their territories shall be permitted only upon the co-ordination with a state agency responsible for the protection of cultural properties and an agency authorised by the founder of the protected territory.