Election commission finds Nemuno Aušra violated campaign financing rules

Lithuania’s Central Electoral Commission has found that the Nemuno Aušra political party and its chairman, Remigijus Žemaitaitis, seriously violated election financing rules during the 2024 parliamentary and presidential campaigns, LRT reported. The decision was not unanimous.

The commission found that the campaigns were substantially financed with funds from legal entities. It classified as corporate donations a total of 24,200 euros transferred to the party through Robertas Puchovičius by Tvari statyba and Lajota.

A further 4,500 euros from Tvari statyba, transferred through Puchovičius, was classified as a corporate donation to Žemaitaitis’s presidential campaign.

The commission said Puchovičius had financed both campaigns through a third party while arranging the transfers from the companies. It also found that Aleksandras Fursas provided funds through a third party, while Lina Šukytė-Korsakė transferred 5,000 euros she had received from him to Žemaitaitis’s campaign as a personal donation. All those individuals were found to have violated the Election Code.

The commission also found violations of the Law on Political Organisations. Paulius Kazilionis, a business partner of Puchovičius’s brother, paid 300 euros in membership fees using funds received from Puchovičius. Puchovičius’s father, Edvardas Puchovičius, and his wife, Eva Puchovič, paid 2,500 euros and 1,500 euros respectively from the same funds. The total amounted to 4,300 euros.

The commission concluded that Nemuno Aušra had seriously violated the Election Code and the Law on Political Organisations by financing its parliamentary campaign with corporate donations and through third parties. It also found that Žemaitaitis had seriously violated the Election Code by financing his presidential campaign with a corporate donation and through third parties.

Žemaitaitis was ordered to transfer 9,500 euros in illegal presidential campaign financing to the state budget within 20 working days.

A decision requiring Nemuno Aušra to transfer a total of 28,500 euros in illegally received funds to the state budget was postponed until the issue of state budget allocations for political parties is resolved.

The commission plans to notify the Special Investigation Service and the General Prosecutor’s Office about the violations.

The commission had initially planned to consider the matter in early July, but postponed it after receiving three requests for a delay. It postponed the issue again in early August, allowing the companies involved two weeks to submit documents.

Milda Pocevičiūtė, head of the commission’s Political Parties and Political Campaign Financing Control Division, said the companies had submitted explanations and documents, but they had not changed the commission’s findings. She said the conclusions were based on collected data, explanations, bank transactions, transfer amounts and dates, account balances, the sequence of fund movements, the status of the individuals involved and a repeated pattern of transfers.

During the meeting, the commission also discussed why campaign financing had been provided from company accounts. The lawyer representing Tvari statyba and Lajota, Povilas Gruodis, said Puchovičius had transferred more than 50,000 euros of his own funds into one of the companies’ accounts.