In Lithuania, a public election committee (Lithuanian: visuomeninis rinkimų komitetas) is an organized group of voters outside of political parties which participates in local or European Parliament elections.[1]
In 2023, 11 mayors (of 60) and 183 municipal council members (of 1498) were elected from public election committees. 4 of Lithuania's 5 largest cities elected a mayor belonging to a committee. The strongest committee is Vieningas Kaunas, led by Visvaldas Matijošaitis, which has won local elections in Kaunas, Lithuania's second largest city, since the introduction of committees in 2015.[2] Committees also participated in the 2019 European Parliament election in Lithuania, in which one of the seats was won by a public election committee led by Aušra Maldeikienė.[3]
The prominence of public election committees has been described as the result of an ongoing crisis of confidence in political parties in Lithuania.[4] [5]
A public electoral committee is established by voters who reside in the municipality in which candidates are standing. The number of electors must be at least twice the number of total members of the municipality's council or Lithuania's delegation to the European Parliament. A voter may be a member of only one election committee at any time. A committee is set up for the purpose of participating in a specific election, by means of an electoral committee operating agreement signed by all members of the electoral committee. The operating agreement of the election committee is approved by the Central Electoral Commission.[6]
A committee ceases being active once the election it was established to participate in ends. However, certain committees operate beyond elections in non-official means or have parallel organizations. As an example, Vieningas Kaunas has existed as a public organization of Kaunas citizens since 2010.[7]
Like political parties, committees are required to pay an election deposit and collect a required number of signatures to participate in their election of choice. However, the establishment and operation of committees is simpler compared to political parties - parties require a minimum of 2000 signatures to be established, whereas a committee only requires a small number (only 22 for European Parliament elections). On the other hand, parties can be financed from the state budget, collect membership fees and take on debt, whereas committees can only be financed by donations or by the candidates themselves.
Until 2015, mayoral elections in municipalities in Lithuania were indirect and only political parties could participate in local elections. On 24 December 2002, the Constitutional Court of Lithuania made a ruling that electoral laws in Lithuania must create the possibility for non-partisan candidates to participate in local elections.[8] On 9 November 2010, the court made a similar ruling that existing laws on elections to the European Parliament violate the Constitution by allowing only political parties to compete. In 2013, the Seimas amended European Parliament electoral law to allow the establishment of public election committees.[9] Committees were also introduced ahead of the 2015 local elections, alongside the introduction of direct mayoral elections.
The following is a list of committees which participated in the 2023 Lithuanian municipal elections.
The following committees won the direct mayoral election in their municipality.
| Municipality | Committee | Mayor | Council seats |
|---|---|---|---|
Kaunas City | United Kaunas | Visvaldas Matijošaitis | |
Šiauliai City | Non-Partisan List "Working for the City" | Artūras Visockas | |
Druskininkai | For Druskininkai | Ričardas Malinauskas | |
Panevėžys City | For a Renewing Panevėžys | Rytis Mykolas Račkauskas | |
Kazlų Rūda | Young Kazlų Rūda | Mantas Varaška | |
Kretinga | Kretinga Region | Antanas Kalnius | |
Utena | Together for the Utena Region | Marijus Kaukėnas | |
Varėna | Together with You | Algis Kašėta | |
Klaipėda City | Loyal to Klaipėda | Arvydas Vaitkus | |
Šilalė | For the Šilalė Region | Tadas Bartkus | |
Kalvarija | Let's Strive Together | Nerijus Šidlauskas | |
The following committees did not win the direct mayoral election in their municipality.
Jurbarkas District Municipality
Klaipėda District Municipality
Kretinga District Municipality
Raseiniai District Municipality
Vilkaviškis District Municipality