Global Initiative to Enfranchise People with Disabilities: Lithuania - www.electionaccess.org Text Only Version
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Lithuania

General Right to Vote
Constitution:
(1992)
• Article 34 states: "Citizens who…are 18 years of age or over, shall have the right to vote in the election. The right to be elected shall be established by the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania and by the election laws…"

Exclusion Based on Mental Disability
Constitution:
(1992)
• Article 34 states: "Citizens who…are 18 years of age or over, shall have the right to vote in the election. The right to be elected shall be established by the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania and by the election laws. Citizens who are declared legally incapable by court shall not participate in elections."
• Article 56 states: "Any citizen of the Republic of Lithuania who is not bound by an oath or pledge to a foreign state, and who…is 25 years of age or over…may be elected a Seimas member. Persons who have not served their court-imposed sentence, as well as persons declared legally incapable by court, may not be elected members of the Seimas."
Electoral Law:
(18 July 2000: Amended Law on Elections to the Seimas)
• Article 2, paragraph (1) states: "… Citizens who have been declared legally incompetent by court shall not participate in elections."

Voter Assistance by Other Citizens
Electoral Law:
(18 July 2000: Amended Law on Elections to the Seimas)
• Article 5, paragraph (1) states: "… A voter who because of his physical disability cannot cast a ballot himself, may vote with the assistance of another person whom he trusts, as it is provided in Paragraph 6 of Article 66 of this Law."
• Article 66, paragraph (6) states: "The voter who because of his physical disability is unable to mark his ballot papers himself, cast them into the ballot box, may invite another person (with the exception of the chairman of the electoral committee or its member, or an election observer) to carry out these actions in his place."

Off-Site Voting Alternatives
Electoral Law:
(18 July 2000: Amended Law on Elections to the Seimas)
• Article 67 discusses voting by post.
• Article 71 discusses "Voting in Medical Treatment Facilities and Institutions of Social Guardianship and Care Institutions":
o "… (2) Patients of such facilities and institutions who are able to move shall vote themselves in the voting place in accordance with the procedure set forth in Article 66 of this Law.
o (3) Inmates of medical treatment facilities and institutions of social care who are unable to move shall be visited by officers of special post offices.
o (4) The voting person must, in conditions of secrecy, personally mark the ballot paper and put it into the voucher envelope. If necessary, he may be assisted by an individual (except an employee of that institution or facilities, a postman, a member of the electoral committee, or an election observer) whom he trusts.
o (5) According to the instruction of the head of the medical treatment facilities or the institution of social guardianship or care, it may be prohibited to disturb patients who are in bad condition for the purpose of voting. Such instruction shall be obligatory to postmen.
o (6) It shall also be prohibited to disturb an individual for the purpose of voting, if the commission of doctors has concluded pursuant to the established procedure of the Ministry of Health Care that he is incapable of understanding the essence of his actions and controlling them at the time of voting because of chronic mental disease, feeble-mindedness, or temporary mental disorder."

 
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