Lithuania proposes March 7 date for 2027 local elections

Lithuania’s 2027 municipal council and mayoral elections are proposed for March 7, LRT reported. Parliament Speaker Juozas Olekas registered the relevant draft resolution in the Seimas on Tuesday.

If approved by parliament, March 7 will become the official date of the next local elections.

The Central Electoral Commission had previously said the elections should be held between February 14 and March 14, 2027. Based on the terms of municipal councils and mayors and the practice of the past five local elections, it identified February 28 and March 7 as possible dates.

The commission said that choosing either weekend would ensure that neither the election day nor any second-round voting coincided with national holidays during that period. Olekas’s draft selects the later of the two dates.

Residents of Lithuania’s 60 municipalities will elect municipal council members and mayors in 2027. Local elections are held every four years.

The previous municipal council and mayoral elections took place on March 5, 2023. Turnout in the first round was 48.91 percent for both the mayoral and council elections. A second round was held in 34 municipalities.

The number of council members will change in three municipalities compared with the 2023 elections. The councils of Akmenė District and Kalvarija municipalities will each have four fewer members, while Palanga Municipality will have four more.

Vilnius City Municipality, which has more than 500,000 residents, will elect the largest number of council members at 51. Birštonas Municipality will elect the fewest, with 15.