Grybauskaite proposes measures to fight voters’ bribery

VILNIUS – Today amendments to the laws of Criminal Code, Criminal Intelligence and the Central Electoral Commission will be submitted to the Seimas under the initiative of Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite.

The president seeks to strengthen criminal proceedings for the bribery of voters and to enable the removal of the politicians and political parties who compete in elections using unfair methods.

The amendments to law stipulate that not only a natural person may be prosecuted over the election violations but also a legal person. Also such offenses are currently treated as non-serious, whereas the president proposes to treat them as moderate crimes. Grybauskaite suggests increasing penalty twice, from 2 - 4 year to 4 - 6 years of imprisonment.

Grybauskaite also wants to enable the Central Electoral Commission (VRK) to revoke candidates' registration before the Election Day, whereas currently the law stipulates that VRK cannot cancel registration of a party or a candidate 15 days before the election.