This time we will elect the Seimas in a completely different way: to vote, with masks, with our pens.

You can watch the CEC press conference here:

CEC Chair Laura Matjošaitytė said organizing elections during COVID-19 is a great innovation for election organizers and voters.

According to L. Matjošaitytė, the Ministry of Health, through the state reserve, transferred personal protection measures to the district electoral commissions, which will protect the members and voters of the commissions.

It will be sufficient for the members of the electoral commissions to wear medical masks or respirators that cover the nose and mouth, disposable gloves, and disinfect their hands.

“And we will invite all incoming voters to take care of personal protective equipment. It is not necessary to use a medical mask, necessarily a respirator. Appropriate and reusable personal protective equipment: all those equipment that are suitable in closed premises and tolerated by the Ministry Health ”, explained L. Matjošaitytė.

In addition to personal protective equipment and an identity document, voters who go to vote are encouraged to have their own writing equipment.

If it happens that the voter does not have the means to write, he will also be able to vote, according to L. Matjošaitytė. The electoral commissions will have reusable writing instruments that will be constantly disinfected.

Three essential requirements

Chief epidemiologist Loreta Ašoklienė also emphasized that it is necessary to wear masks and observe safe distances in polling stations.

“In polling stations, we really ask them to keep a distance of at least 2 m from each other.” Do not rush, it is better to wait to reduce the potential risk of spreading the virus, “he stressed.

According to L. Ašoklienė, another insistent recommendation is to disinfect your hands when arriving at the polling stations.

The chief epidemiologist recalled to follow sneeze and cough hygiene.

“Bringing your pen is also very important,” he said.

Members of the electoral commissions working in the polling stations must also wear personal protective equipment. Although they can wear gloves, L. Ašoklienė recommended washing and sanitizing their hands as often as possible. She also recalled that the facilities of the polling stations should be ventilated and disinfected periodically.

“Probably much bigger challenges await the members of the commissions, who will have to visit the voters at home, because here we are in a slightly different situation. One is going to those who have the right to vote at home and the other is going to isolated people. Two things come up here again: individuals isolated by contact and individuals isolated because they are sick. Depending on this situation, commission members should wear the appropriate level of protection, depending on the voter they go to. The use of equipment protection is very important, but it is important to use it correctly. Only by wearing it correctly can you protect against infection by the virus, “said L.Ašoklienė.

Early voting – four days

Voting in the Seimas elections will begin early on Monday. It will be a little different than it was four years ago.

L.Matjošaitytė said there will be more days for early voting; Instead of two days of voting at municipal facilities, it will now be possible to vote for four days: Monday through Thursday.

“If a voter cannot attend on Election Day or knows that they will not be able to attend their constituency on Election Day, they can take the opportunity to come and vote early in any municipality. The voting will be organized in advance from 7 am to 8 pm, ”said the president of the CEC.

Early voting will be organized not only in municipal buildings but also in additional locations. L. Matjošaitytė reported that about a third of the municipalities have made one or the other change because of it.

Let’s say that the Vilnius city municipality will have several early voting places, not only in the mayor’s building, but also in the premises of Saulėtekis, A. Sakharov, Lukiškės Square.

Instead of voting in the mayor’s administration building, the Kaunas city municipality found two other premises: in the town hall square and in Kęstučio street.

Preliminary voting in the Seimas elections will also not be organized in the Klaipėda City Hall building. As L. Matjošaitytė pointed out, it will take place in the Fisherman’s Palace.

From Wednesday to Friday, voting will take place at special points: hospitals, social assistance, welfare institutions, places of prison.

According to L. Matjošaitytė, members of the electoral commission will go to special points ready with personal protective equipment. If the members of the commissions go to medical institutions, infectious wards, voters who have been diagnosed with coronavirus, they must wear special protective suits, booties, hats and the like.

You can also vote at home. This right belongs to voters over 70 years of age, the disabled, people who care for and care for the disabled, as well as those who due to their health status cannot go to the polls on election day, are infected by coronavirus and they are in self-isolation.

Voters in isolation who wish to vote must submit an application to the CEC, fill out a special form (posted on the commission’s website).

Voters who come to vote, both during early voting and on Election Day, will receive two ballots to vote in single-member and multi-member constituencies.

On the ballot for a multi-member constituency, voters will find the 17 parties participating in the Seimas elections listed. At the bottom there are five boxes in which voters can register their priority votes, which candidates are ranked.

Not all facilities are handicap accessible

According to L. Matjošaitytė, it was not possible to make all polling stations adapted so that people with disabilities could vote. The CEC president said municipalities had reported that around 90 percent of polling stations would be adapted for people with disabilities.

Information on which facilities are adapted for people with disabilities can be found on the CEC website.

L. Matjošaitytė also mentioned that this year, as in previous years, so-called Braille sleeves have been prepared. Ballot papers are placed on them, where visually impaired people can vote.

Ginta Žemaitytė, project coordinator of the Lithuanian Union of People with Disabilities, who participated in the CEC press conference, said that so far we are talking about voting for people with disabilities as an innovation, this process intensified only a few years ago years.

Then we started talking, let’s say, about the accessibility of polling stations for the disabled, the commissioners started teaching how to communicate with voters with disabilities.

“It just came to our attention then. It may not be very smooth, there is still room for improvement. There is a lot of attention and cooperation between the CEC and various organizations of people with disabilities, but I could name municipalities as a weaker link. For them, so far, it is a great challenge to know how to adapt the constituencies so that people in wheelchairs can also vote in them, by other means. I will remind you that there are about 60 thousand people with mobility disabilities in Lithuania. They are numbers really big, “said G. Žemaitytė.

According to her, during the previous elections we only noticed another person with a disability who came to vote, and now the number of those voters is growing, the process is beginning.

You will vote by mail in four foreign countries

According to L. Matjošaitytė, Lithuanian citizens living abroad will be able to vote in the world’s new Lithuanian single-member constituency this year.

Citizens residing abroad will be able to vote “live” in almost all the diplomatic missions of our country abroad in the Seimas elections. Voting by mail abroad will take place in four diplomatic missions: the Embassy in Israel, the Consulates in Los Angeles and New York (USA) and Sao Paulo (Brazil).

According to L. Matjošaitytė, a decision is scheduled to be made at the CEC meeting on Thursday that voting in Switzerland will also take place by mail.

According to preliminary data, more than 40 thousand people have registered to vote abroad. Lithuanian citizens. L. Matjošaitytė said that during the 2016 Seimas elections, more than 19,000 people had registered to vote abroad. the citizens. Voted then – 16.4 thousand. voters.

17 parties are participating

The Seimas elections will be held on October 11. His second round, in two weeks.

We will elect 71 MPs in single-member constituencies.

In a multi-member constituency, that is, according to the party lists, we will elect 70 members of the Seimas.

17 political parties participate in the elections. They nominated 1,724 Seimas candidates in a multi-member constituency.

758 candidates will try to enter the Seimas in single-member districts. 737 of them nominated political parties, 23 rose.