§ Article 97Filling a Vacant Seat in the Seimas

Upon the recognition of the lapse of the powers of a Seimas member, a vacancy occurs in the Seimas. It shall be filled in the following manner:
1) if the former Seimas member was elected in a single-member constituency, by-elections shall be organised in this constituency. By-elections must be held not later than within 6 months. The elections shall not be held if the election date planned to be announced falls within the period when less than a year remains before the date of the next election to the Seimas, as counted in compliance with the Constitution. The Central Electoral Committee shall establish the concrete procedure for holding by-elections according to the requirements and terms established by this Law, taking into consideration the fact that by-elections are held in one of the single-member constituencies. When establishing the procedure for holding by-elections, the Central Electoral Committee cannot change the boundaries of a constituency. The citizens, permanently residing on the territory of a constituency who are aged 18 or over on the day of the by-elections shall be additionally registered in the voter list of this constituency. Only the persons who have lost the right to vote shall be crossed out from the list . The voting shall not be conducted abroad, on ships (with the exception of the case when the voters residing abroad or the crews of ships are registered in the voter lists of the constituency in which by-elections are be held), in the post offices which are not located on the territory of this constituency (except the central post offices of towns, regions);
2) in a multi-member constituency the first candidate, who has not received the mandate of Seimas member, from the list of candidates according to which the former Seimas member was elected to the presently vacant seat shall become a Seimas member. If there are no candidates on this list of candidates who have not received mandates of Seimas member, the mandate of Seimas member shall be transferred to another list according to the sequence of the lists of candidates which was established after the election for the distribution of mandates by the method of remainders, that is to the list following the list which was the last to receive the mandate according to this sequence. So the first candidate, who has not received the mandate, on the list which has newly received a mandate shall become a Seimas member. The Central Electoral Committee must adopt the decision concerning recognition of the mandate of Seimas member for a new Seimas member not later than within 7 days after the occurrence of a vacant seat in the Seimas.