Over 14,000 candidates to run in Lithuania's municipal elections

  • 2019-01-18
  • BNS/TBT Staff

VILNIUS - Over 14,000 candidates are planning to run in Lithuania's municipal elections this March, the head of the Central Electoral Commission said on Friday.  

"We have 14,372 persons who have submitted application documents, of whom 45 percent are women and 55 percent are men," Laura Matjosaityte said at the Seimas as political parties drew lots for ballot position in the elections. 

"Among candidates for mayoral seats, 22 percent are women and 78 percent are men," she added. 

The Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) is the party fielding the largest number of candidate lists -- in all 60 municipalities. 

A total of 420 people have registered to compete for mayoral seats, including 333 candidates of political parties, 79 candidates of public election committees and 14 independents. 

Matjosaityte noted that the number of seats in municipal councils has been falling amid the population decline.

"Overall, the number of members elected to municipal councils started to decline after 2007. We had 1,524 councilors in 2015 and will elect only 1,502 members in 2019," she said. 

Lithuania will hold direct mayoral and municipal council elections on March 3.