Requirements for members of electoral committees

1. Eligibility for membership of electoral committees shall be limited to citizens of the Republic of Lithuania of good repute, provided they are eligible for election as Members of the Seimas. This shall disregard the age threshold set for the youngest parliamentary candidate. Nevertheless, the prospective member of the electoral committee must be aged 18 or over at the time of establishment of the electoral committee. Eligibility for membership of the Central Electoral Commission, constituency electoral committees, and municipal electoral committees shall be limited to persons with a degree in higher education.

2. The person nominated by the director of the municipal administration for membership of an electoral committee must rank among career civil servants of that municipal administration.

3. Members of electoral committees appointed upon nomination by the Minister of Justice, the Lithuanian Lawyers’ Association (hereinafter: ‘the Lawyers’ Association’) and the director of the municipal administration shall, where they are members of political organisations, suspend their membership thereof prior to taking up their duties in the electoral committee and may not participate in the activities of the political organisation throughout the length of their service in the electoral committee.

4. Candidates, chairs and members of other electoral committees or referendum committees, members of citizens’ initiative groups for a referendum of the Republic of Lithuania, election or referendum observers, and election or referendum representatives are not eligible to serve as members of an electoral committee and must engage neither in the activities related to the collection of voter signatures under Article 79 in support of a candidate or list of candidates, nor in the collection of voter signatures of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania in support of calling a referendum.

5. A member of an electoral committee intending to stand as a candidate at an election must resign from office at least 30 days before the date of submission of the application documents.

6. Persons who fail to meet or who infringe the requirements set out in paragraphs 1 to 5 of Article 26 shall either be refused appointment as members of electoral committees or shall be dismissed.

7. Persons shall be considered to be not of good repute under the following circumstances: 1) if they are found guilty, by an effective court judgment, of a criminal act, provided their prior conviction has not expired yet or has not been expunged; 2) if they have been dismissed from the office of a member of the electoral committee or a referendum committee for violation of this Code or other laws, provided five years have not yet passed since such dismissal; 3) if they have been dismissed from elected or appointed office on account of a broken oath or pledge or tarnished officer’s reputation, provided three years have not passed from the date of the dismissal or entry into force of the decision to withdraw the mandate; 4) if they have been dismissed from work or position or have lost the right to engage in the activity for non-compliance with the requirements of good repute set out in law and for infringement of ethical norms set out law, provided three years have not passed since the date of dismissal, loss of duties or the right to engage in the activity in question; 5) if they are members of an organisation prohibited by law.

8. The following principles shall apply for changing the composition of constituency electoral committees, municipal electoral committees, and polling district electoral committees: 1) the chair or any member of the electoral committee may be dismissed from office by either the electoral committee in charge of approving the composition of former, or by the Central Electoral Commission; 2) the electoral committee may consider only a well-grounded proposal by a political organisation/coalition of political organisations for the withdrawal of a member of the electoral committee originally proposed thereby; 3) where necessary, a new chair or member of the electoral committee may be appointed under the procedure set out in this Code, provided the time limits set out in this Code for the establishment of electoral committee have been respected.