Setting up of polling district electoral committees

1. Polling district electoral committees shall be set up for organising and holding voting on the territories of the polling districts.

2. Polling district electoral committees shall be set up no later than 45 days before the polling day.

3. No later than 65 days before the polling day, the municipal electoral committee shall determine the number of members in each polling district electoral committee; the figure must be a multiple of the number of political organisations (their coalitions) entitled to nominate candidates to electoral committees. The polling district electoral committee must consist of at least five members.

4. Political parties, political committees and coalitions shall submit to the respective municipal/constituency electoral committee the list of candidates for membership of the polling district electoral committees no later than 52 days before the polling day.

5. The following entities shall be entitled to nominate candidates to the polling district electoral committee in equal shares:

1) a political party/coalition that gained seats in the Seimas during the previous election to the Seimas in a multi-member constituency, and a financed party;

2) a political party/a coalition that had gained at least two seats in the municipal council during the previous local election. If a party had gained seats in the municipal council while in a coalition, it may nominate candidates together with the parties that had formed part of the coalition;

3) a political party/coalition that had gained at least one seat in the previous election to the European Parliament;

4) for local and mayoral elections – political committees/coalitions of political committees that had gained at least two seats in the municipal council during the previous local election;

5) for an election to the European Parliament – political committees/coalitions that had gained at least one seat in the European Parliament in the previous election to the European Parliament.

6. If a political party may nominate candidates based on the results of elections to the Seimas, local elections, and elections to the European Parliament, it shall chose only one of the three options.

7. If a political party that had formed a coalition does not nominate any candidates or chooses to raise nominations based on other than the coalition results, other parties that had formed the coalition shall have the right to nominate candidates without the participation of the former party.

8. If the candidates nominated by a political party/political committee/coalition comply with the requirements of this Code, the constituency/municipal electoral committee must appoint them as members of the polling district electoral committees.

9. If a political party/committee/coalition raises no nominations or if the nominations fail to meet the requirements of this Code, miss the deadline, or leave a seat in the committee unfilled, the constituency electoral committee or municipal electoral committee shall, under the procedure set out by the Central Electoral Commission, appoint the missing members of the polling district electoral committee from the Reserve List specified in this Code. If there are no persons on the Reserve List who may be appointed as members of a polling district electoral committee, the director of the municipal administration must nominate the missing members. The constituency electoral committee/municipal electoral committee may reduce the number of members of a polling district electoral committee provided the polling district electoral committee will have at least five members as a result. In all cases, a polling district electoral committee may not be composed of persons belonging to a single party.

10. The constituency electoral committee/municipal electoral committee shall appoint the chair of the polling district electoral committee from among the members of that electoral committee. Chairmanship of polling district electoral committees shall be reserved to holders of experience of either chairmanship or membership of the Central Electoral Commission, constituency electoral committee, municipal electoral committee, or polling district electoral committee, as well as to holders of a degree in higher education.

11. A polling district electoral committee shall elect its deputy chair and its secretary at its first meeting, provided at least three fifths of all the members of the polling district electoral committee participate in the process.