The expatriate constituency in Lithuania’s general elections could be abolished due to insufficient turnout. A proposed amendment to the Electoral Code would help keep it.
Of Lithuania’s 71 territorially-defined constituencies – each one electing a delegate to the parliament – one covers the entire world beyond the country and includes the votes of expatriate citizens.
It was set up in 2019 and, according to the law, the world Lithuanian constituency is retained as long as the number of votes cast by expats is greater than 1.1 times the average constituency size. This means the threshold of 37,000.
For Sunday’s elections, some 53,000 people registered to vote from abroad and so far around 30,000 ballots reached the Central Electoral Commission. Although that is more than in all the territorial constituencies (the average size is 33,000 voters and the turnout was 52 percent), this means that the expats may lose the possibility to elect their own representative in the 2028 elections.
Freedom Party chairwoman Aušrinė Armonaitė – who is running in the world Lithuanian constituency and has advanced to the run-offs – is proposing amendments to the Electoral Code to address the problem.
The change proposed by Armoaitė would set the threshold of 1.1 times the average constituency for registered voters rather than the ballots cast.
“Currently, the procedure for forming the single-member constituency of the Lithuanian world community discriminates against Lithuanian citizens living abroad. In Lithuania, single-member constituencies are formed according to the number of registered citizens, while abroad they are formed according to the number of people who have voted in the elections,” Armonaitė is quoted in a statement by the Freedom Party.
According to her, even though the constituency received more ballots than all the others, the turnout may not be enough to preserve this district in the 2028 elections.
“Most people abroad vote by post, but due to poor postal work, many envelopes go missing and people’s votes are not counted. Therefore, it would be more objective to use the number of citizens who have registered to vote to determine the World Lithuanian Constituency,” says Armonaitė.
Similar changes to the Electoral Code have already been attempted once in the Seimas, but did not garner enough support.
Armonaitė has made it to the second round in the World Lithuanian Constituency, where she will compete against conservative Dalia Asanavičiūtė. The vote will take place on October 27.
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