FACTBOX - Presidential Election Procedure In Lithuania

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th May, 2019) Lithuania will hold the second round of presidential elections on Sunday, May 26.

According to the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, the president is the head of state. The president is elected by citizens of the republic on the basis of universal equal suffrage in a free direct election by secret ballot for a term of five years. The same person cannot hold the office for more than two consecutive terms.

The Seimas, the country's parliament, announces the presidential election. The regular presidential election in Lithuania is held on the last Sunday two months before the current president's term expires.

The organization and conduct of the presidential election are provided by the Central Electoral Commission, municipal electoral commissions and precinct electoral commissions.

Citizens of the republic, who have reached the age of 18 years by the election day, have the right to elect the president of the country. Citizens recognized as legally incapable by a court do not have the right to vote.

A citizen of the republic by birth, who has lived in Lithuania for at least the past three years, may be elected president. The presidential candidate must be at least 40 years old and must have the right to be elected to the Seimas.

A person who has grossly violated the country's constitution or breached the oath, who has been removed from office by the Seimas or whose mandate of a member of the Seimas has been revoked cannot be elected president.

Presidential candidates can nominate themselves or be nominated by political parties.

Presidential candidates are required to provide the Central Electoral Commission with his or her document confirming the citizenship and a document confirming the payment of a deposit in the amount of five average monthly salaries. The electoral deposit is refunded if the candidate in the presidential election has received more than 7 percent of the votes.

In addition, presidential candidates are required to inform the Central Electoral Commission in writing if they have a citizenship of another state.

Within three days from the date the Central Electoral Commission received the application, the commission checks if there are any circumstances preventing a person from becoming a presidential candidate.

After the Central Electoral Commission decides to issue a person with forms for collecting voter signatures, before he or she is officially registered as a presidential candidate, the person has to provide the commission with information about his or her work in security agencies of the Soviet Union, such as the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, Ministry of State Security, Committee for State Security or others, as well as in the relevant agencies of other foreign states; about studying in schools of these agencies or about any cooperation with this agencies.

A Lithuanian citizen who meets the above requirements and has collected at least 20,000 voter signatures is registered as a presidential candidate.

Not later than 30 days before the election day, the Central Electoral Commission officially publishes the list of persons registered as presidential candidates.

The voting takes place between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. local time in the premises specified by the election commission. A voter is entitled to vote only at a certain polling station, where he was included in the list of voters.

The voter presents a passport or another document confirming his or her identity, and a voter card. A member of the election commission makes a mark that the voter has arrived to vote, and gives the voter a certificate of arrival, which indicates the member of the commission who will give the ballot paper to the voter. The voter receives the ballot, marks it in a polling booth and then places it in the ballot box.

Some of the voters have the right to vote at home: persons with disabilities, voters who are temporarily disabled due to illness, voters who are 70 and older, if they cannot vote in advance for health reasons or come to the polling station on the election day and if they have submitted a formal declaration for voting at home.

Voters who cannot come to a polling station on the election day are allowed to vote earlier. Early voting is organized by municipal electoral commissions.

The final election results are announced by the Central Electoral Commission no later than within seven days from the voting day.

A candidate who receives more than half of the votes is considered the winner if more than a half of the registered voters took part in the vote. If less than a half of all voters took part in the vote, the candidate who received the largest number of votes, but at least one third of the votes, is considered elected.

If no one gets the necessary majority of votes in the first round, the second round of the election is held within 14 days. Two candidates with the best results in the first round qualify for the runoff. Following the second round, the candidate who received more votes than the opponent becomes president.

If only two candidates took part in the first round of the election and none of them received the required number of votes, the runoff is held within three months.

The elected candidate takes office the day after the current president's term of office expires and after taking the oath.