Andrius Vyšniauskas, deputy elder of the Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) faction of the Seimas, proposes that a person cannot be elected not only if he has not completed his sentence 65 days before the election day, but also if punitive measures are applied.
“A person who participates in elections must not have a criminal sanction, because a criminal sanction is directly related to the punishment and means that the person is still subject to punishment,” noted A. Vyšniauskas, the drafter of the amendments to the Election Code. According to him, this would allow to solve the problems that arose during the municipal elections.
The proposed amendments to the Election Code envisage that declaration documents could be submitted to the Central Election Commission (CEC) much earlier than now (currently, only a period of almost three weeks is reserved for this). It is proposed that candidates can start submitting their application documents at the beginning of the political campaign period, and the submission of documents will end 80 days before the election day. As the parliamentarian noted, these changes would ensure that the CEC would have more time to review the documents, and declaration documents would not be submitted in the middle of the day – this always happens during municipal elections.
The new regulations aim to provide for a smaller number of candidates participating in the debate. In order to ensure the quality of the debates, the number of participants in one program should not exceed 7 participants. The specific number of participants and the size of the groups in each debate show will be determined by the CEC.
Amendments to the Code also suggest establishing the concept of false information and creating a mechanism for a candidate to defend himself if false information is published about him.
It is proposed that the Election Code prohibit the publication of activity reports of municipalities, members of the Seimas and members of the European Parliament, which are not marked as political advertising, during the election political campaign.
The amendments would change the procedure for recounting votes during the elections of the President of the Republic, municipal councils and mayors. In addition, in the event of a candidate’s death or loss of passive voting rights in a repeat vote in a single-member district, the elections in that single-member district would be reorganized.
Amendments to the Election Code, which were approved by the Seimas on Thursday, will continue to be discussed in the main appointed Law and Law and Order Committee. June they are planned to be discussed in the plenary hall.
Tags: Seimas addresses loopholes Election Code highlighted elections
