§ Article 3Tasks and Powers of the Central Electoral Commission

1. Tasks of the Central Electoral Commission shall be as follows:
1) to organise and conduct elections to the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, elections to the Office of the President of the Republic, elections to municipal councils, elections to the European Parliament (hereinafter: ‘elections’) and referendums;
2) to ensure that elections and referendums would be hold adhering to the principles of democratic elections enshrined in the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Lithuania;
3) to guarantee uniform application of election laws and the Law on Referendum on the whole territory of the Republic of Lithuania;
4) to perform the functions of mandate commissions of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania and municipal councils during the period between elections to such institutions;
5) in the manner and forms prescribed by law, to control financing of political parties and political organisations (hereinafter: ‘parties’), political campaigns;
6) to coordinate implementation of EU citizens’ initiatives;
valid as of 1 October 2019:
7) to share information on activities of European political parties and European political foundations.
2. When implementing the tasks laid down in paragraph 1 of this Article, the Central Electoral Commission shall:
1) in the manner prescribed by law, set up electoral and referendum committees of constituencies, cities and regions;
2) control activities of electoral and referendum committees of constituencies, cities, regions and polling districts, hear their information on the preparedness for elections and referendums, their course, provide methodical and organisational technical assistance to the committees;
3) investigate complaints and make decisions regarding the decisions adopted by electoral and referendum committees of constituencies, cities and regions, and where necessary – the decisions adopted by electoral and referendum committees of polling districts, reverse the decisions which do not meet the requirements of laws or other legal acts;
4) establish and proclaim final results of elections and referendums;
5) declare results of elections, referendums invalid, if election or referendum documents were falsified during them or other illegal actions were carried out which had an essential effect on the results of elections or referendums;
6) establish samples and forms of ballot papers of elections and referendums, other documents, seals used in elections and referendums, samples for marking ballot papers and documents, procedure of stamping them;
7) approve a model description of a polling station and the surrounding territory, and control whether electoral and referendum committees of constituencies, cities, regions have together with mayors of municipalities arranged for the conformity of polling stations, their equipment and surrounding territory to the set requirements;
8) in the manner prescribed by law, resolve all the disputes concerning election and referendum campaigning;
9) manage state funds appropriated for elections and referendums, direct financial activities of electoral and referendum committees of constituencies, cities, regions;
10) in compliance with the laws relating to elections and the Law on Referendum, organise the drawing-up of voter lists, constant revision and management thereof, as well as additional revision of voter lists prior to the beginning of voting in elections or referenda, so that the voters who died, lost citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania in accordance with the procedure established by law or have been declared incompetent by the court, would be struck off voter lists;
11) supervise the implementation of election laws and the Law on Referendum, direct application of legal acts of the European Union regulating EU citizens’ initiatives;
12) co-operate with international organisations, maintain relations with institutions of other states organising elections and referendums as well as with institutions coordinating EU citizens’ initiatives;
13) summarise and publish for an unlimited period of time the information on the elections, referendums held in the Republic of Lithuania, Republic of Lithuania citizens’ legislative initiatives and EU citizens’ initiatives as well as their results, statutory data on funding of political parties and political campaigns and on dissemination of political advertising, sums as donations made by political campaign donors, data on expenditure and liabilities of political parties and political campaigns;
14) generalise the experience of elections and referendums, have care of education and informing of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania and persons permanently residing in Lithuania about elections, provide information about their participation in elections;
15) make arrangements about the improvement of election technologies;
16) in the manner prescribed by legal acts, transfer election and referendum documents to the state archives for preservation and publish on its website for an unlimited period of time the election information as it was during the election;
17) perform the functions of an institution verifying and certifying statements of support from the person who are entitled in the Republic of Lithuania to vote at elections to the European Parliament and who implement an EU citizens’ initiative;
18) have the right to acquire from the saved state budgetary funds allocated to organise elections and referendums the equipment for arranging polling stations and to convey it in accordance with the procedure laid down by legal acts to municipalities for managing, using and disposing of it by the right of trust;
19) for the purpose of elections, referendums, Republic of Lithuania citizens’ legislative initiatives, EU citizens’ initiatives, funding of political campaigns, political parties, information activities for voters, transparency of election and referendum processes and ensuring of the functioning of a democratic system in the State, fair competition of candidates, announce in accordance with the procedure laid down by the Central Electoral Commission the information about the candidates prepared according to application and other documents submitted by the candidates or their representatives, votes received by the candidates, lists of members of electoral committees or referendum committees, observers, representatives, members of initiative groups, donors of political campaigns on the website of the Central Electoral Commission. Information about the candidates, votes received by the candidates and lists of members of electoral committees or referendum committees, observers, representatives, members of initiative groups, donors of political campaigns may, following the announcement of such information and lists on the website of the Central Electoral Commission, be changed in the case of correction of the linguistic errors or the information on the website differs from the information presented in the application and other documents. Personal numbers of the candidates and other persons, numbers of the documents confirming their citizenship or identity, addresses of their places of residence may not be announced on the website;
20) discharge other functions laid down in this and other laws.
Valid as of 1 October 2019:
18) perform functions of a national contact point that shares information on funding provisions, controls and sanctions on European political parties and European political foundations with the entities specified in Article 28(1) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014;
19) have the right to acquire from the saved state budgetary funds allocated to organise elections and referendums the equipment for arranging polling stations and to convey it in accordance with the procedure laid down by legal acts to municipalities for managing, using and disposing of it by the right of trust;
20) for the purpose of elections, referendums, Republic of Lithuania citizens’ legislative initiatives, EU citizens’ initiatives, funding of political campaigns, political parties, information activities for voters, transparency of election and referendum processes and ensuring of the functioning of a democratic system in the State, fair competition of candidates, announce in accordance with the procedure laid down by the Central Electoral Commission the information about the candidates prepared according to application and other documents submitted by the candidates or their representatives, votes received by the candidates, lists of members of electoral committees or referendum committees, observers, representatives, members of initiative groups, donors of political campaigns on the website of the Central Electoral Commission. Information about the candidates, votes received by the candidates and lists of members of electoral committees or referendum committees, observers, representatives, members of initiative groups, donors of political campaigns may, following the announcement of such information and lists on the website of the Central Electoral Commission, be changed in the case of correction of the linguistic errors or the information on the website differs from the information presented in the application and other documents. Personal numbers of the candidates and other persons, numbers of the documents confirming their citizenship or identity, addresses of their places of residence may not be announced on the website;
21) discharge other functions laid down in this and other laws.
3. When conducting elections to the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania the Central Electoral Commission shall, apart from the functions specified in paragraph 2 of this Article:
1) divide the territory of the Republic of Lithuania into single-member constituencies;
2) accept application documents concerning the nomination of candidates for the Seimas, examine them; upon establishing that the documents are in conformity with the requirements of laws, register the candidates and lists of candidates, and make public the lists of nominees who will participate in the elections, the numbers they have been assigned, and the candidates nominated in single-member constituencies;
3) discharge the functions of a multi-member constituency electoral committee;
4) issue a certificate of Seimas member of the Republic of Lithuania to an elected candidate; and
5) announce the second poll in a single-member constituency.
4. When conducting presidential elections the Central Electoral Commission shall, apart from the functions specified in paragraph 2 of this Article:
1) register candidates for President of the Republic, issue them with forms for the collection of voter signatures;
2) check forms for the collection of voter signatures, register candidates for President of the Republic, issue them with certificates of candidates for President of the Republic;
3) issue an elected candidate with a certificate of President of the republic of Lithuania.
5. When conducting elections to municipal councils the Central Electoral Commission shall, apart from the functions specified in paragraph 2 of this Article:
1) set the number of members of municipal councils;
2) accept application documents of parties as well as applications pertaining to the withdrawal of such documents, inspect them, register parties for the participation in elections to municipal councils, register their representatives in the elections and issue them with certificates, publish lists of the parties participating in the elections, election numbers allotted to them, make decisions regarding the withdrawal of application documents of candidates to municipal councillors;
3) write a certificate of municipal councillor for an elected candidate and submit it to a constituency electoral committee so that the latter would issue it to a municipal councillor.
6. When conducting referendums or when the citizens’ right to initiate legislation is being implemented the Central Electoral Commission shall, apart from the functions specified in paragraph 2 of this Article:
1) register an initiative group of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania to conduct a referendum, issue forms for the collection of citizens’ signatures;
2) inspect and establish whether there are 300 000 properly collected signatures of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania requesting to hold a referendum;
3) register an initiative group of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania regarding a proposal to the Seimas to adopt, amend or supplement the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania or any other law, issue forms for the collection of citizens’ signatures, submit conclusions to the Seimas specifying that the citizens’ signatures have been collected in accordance with laws;
4) under the recommendation of an initiative group of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania, parties, register their representatives and observes at the Central Electoral Commission and issue certificates to them;
5) repealed.
7. When implementing Regulation (EU) No 211/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council referred to in the Annex to this Law, the Central Electoral Commission, besides the functions set out in paragraph 2 of this Article, shall:
1) in accordance with the procedure laid down by it, issue, upon their request, statements of support to organisers of an EU citizens’ initiative registered by the European Commission;
2) lay down the procedure of verification of statements of support submitted by the organisers of an EU citizens’ initiative to the Central Electoral Commission.
8. When discharging the functions established in this and other laws the Central Electoral Commission shall have the right:
1) to obtain from all state and municipal institutions and agencies, as well as from other agencies, enterprises and organisations, electoral and referendum committees the data and documents necessary to discharge the functions of the Central Electoral Commission;
2) to request from all state and municipal institutions and agencies, as well