Upon having ascertained that the envelope has not been tampered with, counting of preference votes shall commence. Information on the time and place of the counting of preference votes as well as in the event when the constituency electoral committee decides to recount ballot papers, must, not later than one hour before the commencement of the counting, be announced on two notice boards: one installed in the building in which the headquarters of the constituency electoral committee is situated, and the other in the premises in which preference votes shall be counted. When counting preference votes, election observers may attend and a police officer must be on duty. All ballot papers shall be put on tables on which no there are no other documents and writing materials ( except black lead pencils), and the committee shall check if there are all the ballot papers from which preference votes must be counted.
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The concrete procedure of preference votes counting shall be established by the Central Electoral Committee not later than 7 days prior to elections. Votes must be counted in such a way that such procedure might be observed by all the persons present during the counting of votes and would be able to ascertain that votes are counted fairly and justly. Counted votes shall be recorded in the second part of the vote counting record, ballot papers shall be packed, the package shall be sealed and transferred to the constituency electoral committee.
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Article 73Vote Counting Records in the Polling District
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1.One vote count record consisting of two parts shall be drawn up in every polling district, the first part of which shall include:
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1)the number of voters in the polling district;
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2)the number of ballot papers received from the constituency electoral committee;
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3)the number of ballot papers delivered to each member of the committee, the number of ballot papers delivered to voters, the number of voter signatures, the number of voter certificates, the number of arrival cards, and the number of unused and spoiled ballot papers;
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4)the number of annulled ballot papers;
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5)the number of voters who have voted in the polling station of the polling district;
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6)the time of the opening of the ballot box;
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7)the number of ballot papers found in the ballot box by which voters did not vote for any list of candidates or voted for several lists of candidates;
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8)the number of ballot papers found in the ballot box by with which voters voted for one list of candidates;
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9)the number of votes found in the ballot box which have been separately cast for each list of candidates;
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10)the number of envelopes received by post and the number of sealed voucher envelopes;
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11)the number of ballot papers received by post, by which voters did not vote for any list of candidates or voted for several lists;
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12)the number of ballot papers received by post by which voters voted for one list of candidates;
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13)the number of votes received by post for each list of candidates;
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14)the total number of voters who participated in the elections in the polling district;
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15)the total number of ballot papers by which voters did not vote for any list of candidates or voted for several lists; and
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16)the total number of votes cast for each list of candidates.
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2.The number of the voters of the polling district shall be established according to the voter lists of the polling district. The number of the voters who have been delivered the ballot papers, shall be established according to the voters’ signatures proving that the ballot papers have been received. The number of the voters who have voted in the polling district shall be established according to the number of the ballot papers found in the ballot box of the polling district. The number of the voters who have participated in the election in the polling district shall be established according to the number of the ballot papers found in the ballot boxes of the polling districts and the number of the ballot papers received by post.
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3.If more ballot papers are found in the ballot box than the number which have been delivered to voters, the committee shall take measures to ascertain the causes. This shall be entered in the vote counting record, indicating the number of extra ballot papers which were found.
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4.After all data have been entered into the first part of the vote counting record of the polling district and all ballot papers have been put into sealed packages and the special envelope (envelopes), this part of the vote counting records of the polling district shall be signed by the chairman and members of the polling district electoral committee. Following this, the first part of the records shall be signed by the observers. Their marks, the separate opinions of the members of the committee shall be appended to the first part of the records and shall be an inseparable part thereof.
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5.The second part of the record shall include:
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1)the number of ballot papers which are being counted;
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2)the number of preference votes received by each candidate;
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3)the sum of the preference votes received by all candidates;
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4)the number of invalid ballot papers;
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5)other data of vote counting, established by the Central Electoral Committee, necessary when checking if the votes cast by voters have been counted accurately.
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6.After all data have been entered into the second part of the polling district vote counting record and all counted ballot papers have been put into the sealed packages, this part of the polling district vote counting record shall be signed by the chairman and members of the electoral committee. After that the observers shall sign the second part of the record. Their remarks, the separate opinions of the members of the committee shall be appended to the second part of the record and shall be an inseparable part thereof. If the polling district committee or the constituency electoral committee establishes that the mistake has been made in the data recorded in the first part of the vote counting record, a record shall be drawn up to correct the mistake. The second part of the record and ballot papers shall be returned to the constituency electoral committee. A decision concerning the mistake shall be adopted by the constituency electoral committee.
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Article 74Invalid Ballot Papers
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1.Invalid ballot papers shall be:
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1)ballot papers of a non-established sample;
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2)ballot papers sealed with the seal of the electoral committee of the wrong polling district (ballot papers received by post - without the seal of the constituency electoral committee);
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3)ballot papers of the wrong constituency;
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4)ballot papers by which the voter did not vote for any list of candidates (marked more than one list of candidates; did not mark any lists of candidates; it is impossible to ascertain the voter’s will from the mark made thereon).
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Article 75The Presentation of Documents of the Polling District to the Constituency Electoral Committee
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1.The polling district electoral committee shall put all ballot papers, as well as invalid and unused ballot papers, other election documents into packages, inventory them and affix the seal unto them in the manner prescribed by the Central Electoral Committee. The packages shall be delivered together with the vote counting record and its annexes, voter lists, records of the polling district electoral committee and financial documentation for the whole period of its work to the constituency electoral committee within 12 hours of the closing of voting, unless the Central Electoral Committee provides otherwise.
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2.The Central Electoral Committee and the Ministry of the Interior must ensure the safety of transportation of the election documents and the persons transporting them.
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Article 76The Counting of Votes in the Constituency Electoral Committee
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1.The constituency electoral committee shall accept the documents delivered by the polling district electoral committee and shall check:
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1)whether all required documents (packages and special envelopes with ballot papers) have been delivered;
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2)sealing and descriptions of the packages (whether the description is full and correct);
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3)whether all data have been entered in the first part of the vote counting record; whether they do not contradict one another; whether they correspond to the data available to the polling constituency electoral committee (the number of ballot papers issued to the polling district electoral committee, the number of voters, the number of outer envelopes received by post, the number of all ballot papers according to the first and second parts of the record); whether all of the necessary signatures are available; whether all separate opinions of the committee members, remarks of observers are appended to the record in which they are specified;
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4)whether all remarks and complaints of voters have been examined in the polling district electoral committee.
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2.The constituency electoral committee shall, in the manner prescribed by the Central Electoral Committee, immediately report the data of both parts of the vote counting record, its comments concerning the documents submitted by the polling district electoral committee to the Central Electoral Committee, and shall ensure the safety of submitted documents.
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3.The packages sealed by the polling district electoral committees, which contain ballot papers or other election documents, may be opened in the constituency electoral committee only by the decision of the constituency electoral committee. The special envelope with ballot papers in the constituency electoral committee to count votes may be submitted only to the chairman of the polling district electoral committee or to the committee member authorised by him in writing. The Central Electoral Committee and the Ministry of the Interior must ensure the security of transportation of special envelopes with ballot papers and the persons who transport them.
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4.Upon establishing the shortage of documents submitted by the polling district electoral committee, the constituency electoral committee shall take measures to eliminate the shortage, request the chairman of the polling district electoral committee to supply the missing documents.
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5.The constituency electoral committee shall count the votes in the following manner: totals the data submitted by the polling district electoral committees and adds to them those votes cast by the voters by post, which have been counted in the constituency electoral committee.
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Article 77The Presentation of Vote Count Documents of the Constituency to the Central Electoral Committee
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All documents (except financial documentation) received from polling districts, voter lists, the vote counting record of the constituency, the records of the constituency electoral committee for the whole period of the activities and other election documents shall be put into special packages and sealed by the constituency electoral committee. Packages shall be delivered to the Central Electoral Committee within the time period established by the Central Electoral Committee.
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Article 78The Participation of Observers in the Counting of Votes and Establishment of Election Results
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1.The election observers and also representatives of the mass media may participate in the calculation of votes in polling districts and constituencies, and also in the establishment of election results in constituencies.
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2.The observers shall have the right to make remarks and claims to the appropriate electoral committees concerning the violations of this and other laws of the Republic of Lithuania, but they must not hinder the work of electoral committees. The observers shall have the right to make a written protest to the polling district electoral committee, which shall be appended to the vote counting record of the polling district and delivered to the constituency electoral committee together with other election documents of the polling district. The protest of an election observer to the constituency electoral committee shall be attached to the vote counting record of the appropriate constituency. The protests shall be considered by that electoral committee to whom they have been filed.
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Article 79Publication of the Preliminary Election Results
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1.Preliminary election results may be publicised only by the Central Electoral Committee. If the constituency electoral committee delivers the preliminary data of the election results in all polling districts, the Central Electoral Committee must immediately prepare a report to the mass media. This report shall be announced in the Internet in the first place.
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2.The representatives of the mass media shall be prohibited from disseminating the information about vote counting or election results by video or sound recording equipment, orally, in writing, or otherwise, until the report of the Central Electoral Committee.
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Article 80Complaints against the Decisions of Electoral Committees which Have Been Adopted after the Closing of Voting
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1.Parties, political organisations which have nominated lists of candidates, candidates, their representatives for elections, election observers may appeal against the decisions of polling district electoral committees concerning the drawing up of vote counting records to constituency electoral committee not later than within 24 hours of their drawing up. These complaints must be considered not later than within 24 hours.
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2.The decisions of the constituency electoral committee concerning vote counting records may be appealed against to the Central Electoral Committee not later than within 72 hours following their drawing up and must be considered before the official proclamation of election results.
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3.While considering complaints against the decisions of polling district electoral committees concerning the drawing up of vote count records, constituency electoral committees, in the presence of at least 3/5 of the committee members, may recount ballot papers which are presented by the polling district electoral committee, and, in the event of an mathematical error in the records, incorrectly counted valid and invalid ballot papers, the committees shall draw up an additional vote counting record of the polling district and appended it to the vote counting record of the polling district. The constituency electoral committee shall not have the right to nullify the vote counting records of the polling district electoral committee.
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4.While considering the complaint against the decision of the constituency electoral committee concerning the drawing up of the vote counting record of the constituency, the Central Electoral Committee may recount ballot papers which are presented by the constituency electoral committee, and, in the event of an mathematical error in the record, incorrectly counted valid or invalid ballot papers, shall draw up an additional vote counting record of the constituency, polling district and append it to the vote counting record of the constituency.
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5.After the official proclamation of the final election results parties, political organisations which have nominated lists of candidates, candidates for councillors may appeal to the Lithuanian Supreme Administrative Court against any decisions of the Central Electoral Committee or other activities of it, within 5 days after the adoption of the decision of the Central Electoral Committee or after the contested activity has become known. The Lithuanian Supreme Administrative Court shall investigate such complaints within 5 days. Its decision shall become effective from the moment of its pronouncement.
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Article 81Vote Counting Record of the Constituency Electoral Committee
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1.In accordance with vote counting records of polling districts, and when necessary - according to ballot papers and other documents, the constituency electoral committee shall establish:
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1)the number of voters who have participated in the elections in the constituency;
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2)the number of invalid ballot papers in the constituency as well as the data of vote counting established by the Central Electoral Committee, necessary when checking whether the votes cast by voters have been counted accurately;
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3)the number of votes cast for each list of candidates and the number of votes cast for each list of candidates.
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2.The post-voting order of succession of a list of candidates shall be made for each list of candidates separately according to the preference votes cast for each candidate. The candidate which received more preference votes shall be entered higher on the post-voting list. If candidates received equal number of preference votes or less than there are councillors being elected in this constituency, the candidate whose position is higher in the order of succession in the application documents, shall be entered higher on the list.
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3.The chairman and the members of the constituency electoral committee shall sign the vote counting record of the constituency electoral committee only after considering separate opinions of the members of the polling district electoral committees, remarks of observers and complaints of voters. The constituency electoral committee may recommend the Central Electoral Committee to declare the election in the constituency invalid.
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ELEVENTH CHAPTER ESTABLISHMENT AND PROCLAMATION OF ELECTION RESULTS
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Article 82The Establishment of Election Results in Multi-Member Candidate Constituencies
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1.The preliminary election results shall be established by the constituency electoral committee after the constituency vote counting record has been signed.
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2.Mandates for lists of candidates shall be distributed according to the number of votes received by each of list applying the method of quotas and remainders. The list of candidates of a party, political organisation may obtain the candidate to councillor mandates (participate in the distribution of mandates) only, if no less than 4 per cent of the voters had voted in favour of it, and the list of coalition candidates - if no less than 6 percent of votes of voters were obtained. If less than 60 percent of voters voted for the lists participating in the distribution of mandates, the right to participate in mandate distribution shall be acquired by that list of candidates, which up to that time, had not participated in the distribution of mandates (the lists, if an equal number of voters has voted in favour of them), in favour of which was voted by the majority of voters. In the same fashion, the number of the lists of candidates, who hold the right to participate in mandate distribution, shall be increased to reach such a number that not less than 60 percent of votes would be cast for the lists of candidates participating in the vote distribution.
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3.The quota of vote distribution shall be counted. It shall be equal to the sum of votes received by the lists participating in the vote distribution divided by the number of mandates. If when dividing, a remainder is received, 1 shall be added to the quotient.
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4.The amount of votes cast for each list shall be divided by the quota of the mandate distribution according to the lists. The received integer quotient shall be the number of mandates for each list according to the quota of the mandate distribution, and the remainders of this division shall be used to distribute the remaining mandates according to the remainders. Therefore, all names of the lists shall be written down in succession in which the first follows the last, according to the size of the remainders of the dividing received by the lists, beginning with the largest. If the remainders of two lists are equal, the first written down shall be the list which possesses the smaller election number. The mandates which have not been distributed when distributing by the method of quotas shall be distributed by one to the lists according to the order of succession, beginning with the list which was written down first.
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5.If one of the lists received the larger number of mandates than there were candidates on the list, these mandates would be distributed to other lists, further continuing the dividing thereof by the method of remainders.
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6.Candidates of the same list shall receive mandates in accordance with the post-voting order of succession of candidates.
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Article 83Establishment and Proclamation of the Final Election Results
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1.The Central Electoral Committee shall approve the final election results after it has considered all complaints and established all election results in this constituency, but not later than within 7 days following the elections. The Central Electoral Committee shall approve without deliberation the decisions of those constituencies regarding which no complaints have been received within 3 days from the representatives of any of the organisations which nominated the lists of candidates, for the violation of this Law having essential influence on election results. Following approval by the Central Electoral Committee of its decision, the constituency electoral committee shall publish the constituency election results no later than within 2 days of the decision approval.
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2.If the Central Electoral Committee changes the decision of the constituency election committee or adopts a decision concerning a vacant councillor seat, the Central Electoral Committee shall publish the election results and issue the councillor certificates no sooner than 7 days following this, and finish no later than within 10 days following the publication of the election results or the decision.
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3.The Central Electoral Committee shall refund the election deposits to the organisations which have submitted the lists of candidates, who participated in the mandate distribution, with the exception of the deposits for the lists in those constituencies in which they did not participate during the elections when distributing mandates. The deposit shall be refunded within 15 days following the proclamation of final election results.
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4.The Central Electoral Committee shall within three months from the proclamation of the final election results issue a book about the election results and shall within four months transfer the vote counting records of polling districts and constituencies, application documents (except the forms for the collection of signatures), minutes of the sittings and the decisions of the Central Electoral Committee, as well as the set of samples of election documents to the State Archives for unlimited safe keeping. After that the Central Electoral Committee may decide to destroy the election documents which are not subject to safe keeping.
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Article 84The Declaration of the Election as Invalid
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The Central Electoral Committee may declare the election results in the constituency invalid if it establishes that severe violations of this Law committed in the polling district or constituency, or the falsification of documents or the loss thereof had an essential influence on the election results, and the following essential results cannot be determined from the vote counting records or other election documents: lists of candidates participating in the distribution of mandates, or it is possible to establish the number of mandates going to a list of candidates only by more than one mandate accuracy.
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Article 85Run-off Elections
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1.Run-off elections shall be held, if the election to the council has been declared invalid in accordance with the procedure established by this Law.
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2.Run-off elections shall be held no later than within 3 months following the recognition of the elections as invalid. The Central Electoral Committee shall also adopt the decision concerning the extension of the authorisation of the constituency electoral committee to hold run-off elections, to change its composition or to make up a new one. Further, run-off elections shall be held according to the procedure established by this Law. The election deposits of organisations submitting lists of candidates, who have previously registered to participate in elections in this constituency, shall be counted.
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3.Upon declaring by the Central Electoral Committee the results of run-off elections in the constituency invalid, the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania shall consider a motion made by the Committee on State Administration and Local Authorities regarding introduction of direct rule into the municipality and set the date of by-elections to the council.
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Article 86Recognising the Powers of Councillor as Terminated Prior to Expiration of Term
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The Central Electoral Committee shall recognise the powers of councillor terminated prior to expiration of term, with the exception of a case, when direct rule shall be applied to the municipal territory per decision by the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania and in accordance with the procedure established by law, no later than within 15 days of the occurrence of a cause for it:
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1)upon resignation of the councillor, namely, according to a resignation statement signed by the councillor himself. This statement by the councillor must be notarised or signed by the mayor and the head of the organisation which had nominated the councillor, or it should be personally submitted by the councillor to the Central Electoral Committee;
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2)if the councillor has failed to attend 3 consecutive council meetings without a reasonable excuse, in accordance with the procedure established by the standing orders of council;
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3)if the court declares the councillor legally incompetent in accordance with an effective decision of the court;
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4)according to an effective court conviction in accordance with an effective court sentence;
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5)if a councillor leaves for permanent residence in a foreign country;
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6)if it comes to light that the councillor has violated the provisions of Article 88 in accordance with an effective court decision or sentence;
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7)upon the death of the councillor in accordance with a copy of a notarised death certificate;
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8)if the court makes a decision on the deportation of the councillor who is not a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania from the Republic of Lithuania in accordance with an effective court decision.
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Article 87Filling a Vacant Seat in the Council
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1.Upon recognising the powers of a councillor as terminated, a vacancy occurs in the council for the position of councillor. It shall be filled in the following manner: the top candidate who did not receive a councillor mandate, from the post-voting list of candidates according to which the former councillor had been elected, shall become councillor. If on this list of candidates there are no candidates who have not received mandates, the councillor’s mandate shall be transferred to another list according to the order of succession of the lists of candidates made after the election for the distribution of mandates by the method of remainders, i.e., that list which comes first following the list which was the last to receive its mandate according to this order of succession, and the first candidate, not having received his mandate who appears on the list with the newly-received mandate shall become councillor. The Central Electoral Committee must adopt the decision concerning recognition of the mandate of the councillor for a new councillor not later than within 7 days after the occurrence of a vacant seat in the council.
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2.If the person, who should receive the mandate of councillor in accordance with part 1 of this Article, is unable to become councillor according to Article 2 of this Law or if upon his becoming councillor, the provisions of Article 86 of this Law must be applied to him immediately, this person shall then be passed over in the order of succession of the list of candidates.
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Article 88Loss of the Mandate of Councillor because of the Failure to Disclose to Voters the Previous Conviction Imposed by the Court Judgement (Decision)
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1.Each candidate for the post of councillor must publicly announce if after 11 March 1990 he has been found guilty of the crime by the effective judgement (decision) of the court of the Republic of Lithuania or a foreign state, or he has been found guilty of the grievous crime by the effective judgement (decision) of the court of the Republic of Lithuania or a foreign state. The candidate shall indicate such fact in the questionnaire of a candidate for councillor. An election poster of a list of candidates, issued by the electoral committee, must contain the following notice beside the surname of the candidate: “Has been found guilty by the court judgement\". This shall not be obligatory if the person was found guilty of the crime against the state by the court of the occupation regime.
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2.If the candidate has failed to indicate this and there is a court’s judgement (decision) which has become effective after 11 March 1990 by which the person has been found guilty of the crime, or if the person has been found guilty of the grievous crime by the effective judgement (decision) of the Republic of Lithuania or a foreign state, the electoral committee shall not register him as a candidate for councillor, and in the event it has already registered him, the Central Electoral Committee shall immediately cancel the registration. If the candidate has not indicated such fact and after the elections to the council it shall become established that there exists a judgement (decision) of the court of the Republic of Lithuania or a foreign state by which the person has been found guilty of an appropriate crime, the Central Electoral Committee shall within 15 days shall terminate his powers as councillor. These requirements and actions of electoral committees shall not apply if a person was found guilty of the crime against the state by the court of the occupation regime.
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Article 89Final Provisions
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The provisions of Article 2 of this Law concerning the participation of other permanent residents of an administrative unit, having a permit to permanently reside in the Republic of Lithuania, in municipal elections, and the provisions of Article 24 concerning the entry of such persons in voter lists shall apply from the day established in Article 1 of the Constitutional Law on the Procedure of Application of the Law on the Amendment of Article 119 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania.
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I promulgate this Law enacted by the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania.
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PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC ALGIRDAS BRAZAUSKAS