Press release, 26 June 2014
In its plenary sitting, the
Seimas adopted amendments to the Law on Elections to Municipal Councils and Law
on Local Self-Government (drafts No XIIP-1309(4) and No XIIP-1310(3)), which will introduce
direct mayoral elections.
The amendments to the Law on
Elections to Municipal Councils were backed by 81 MPs, whereas 3 MPs were
against and 23 abstained; and the amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government
received support of 80 MPs; 5 MPs voted against and 17 abstained.
The amendments concerned are
intended to define the system of the elections to municipal councils where the
mayor is to be directly elected, to set requirements for the candidates running
for municipal councillors and the mayor, and to allow other organisations, not
only political parties, to nominate their candidates.
The amendments provide for a
possibility for voters to directly elect a councillor and the mayor of that
municipality out of the members of that municipal council, the elections being
organised under the absolute majority electoral system in a single-member
constituency that comprises the whole municipality. Members of this municipal
council shall be elected under the proportional electoral system in the
municipality (multi-member constituency). Consequently, municipal councils shall
be elected under the mixed electoral system.
Voters will be handed two
ballot papers: one for the list of candidates and one for the mayoral candidate.
Voting results in a multi-member constituency will be established by applying
the method of quotas and remainders, while the final order of appearance of the
candidates from a party list depends on the priority votes cast for them during
the preferential voting.
A candidate for
councillor–mayor shall be considered elected in a single-member constituency,
if not less than 40 per cent of the voters from the electoral roll of that
constituency have participated in the elections, and the said candidate has
received more than half of votes cast by the voters who have participated in
the first round of elections. If less than 40 per cent of the voters have
participated in the elections, the candidate who has received the majority, but
not less than one-fifth of the votes of all the voters from the electoral roll
of that constituency, shall be considered to have been elected.
If none of the candidates
has been elected in the mayoral elections in the first round, run-off voting
shall be held after two weeks, and the two candidates who have received the
majority of votes shall participate in the said poll.
Under the Ruling of the
Constitutional Court, not only political parties, but also public election
committees shall have the right to nominate candidates in a multi-member
constituency and the mayoral candidates in a single-member
constituency. It has also been decided to refuse self-nominated candidates in a
multi-member constituency. Any citizen can nominate themselves as a mayoral candidate
in a single-mandate constituency. Lists of candidates nominated by political
parties and election committees, candidates running for the mayor and
individuals nominating themselves as mayoral candidates shall be registered provided
that their candidature is supported by signatures of voters of that
municipality. Under the new provisions, the list of candidates nominated by a
political party or electoral committees and candidates for municipal councillors–mayors,
or, in cases when only a list or only a candidate as well as a self-nominated
candidate for municipal council or the mayor’s chair is nominated, shall have
to be supported by no less than 20 per cent of votes of that municipality,
counting per one councillor mandate but no less than 100 of voters of the
respective municipality.
In case the mayor’s mandate
is terminated prior to the expiry of the term of office, new election shall be
held. The amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government shall regulate the
procedure of the discontinuation of the powers of a member of the municipal
council or a municipal councillor–the mayor.
Rimas Rudaitis, Public Relations Unit, Communications Department, tel.+370
5 239 6132,
e-mail: [email protected]
