Olekas urges election commission member to resign over party consultations

Lithuanian parliament Speaker Juozas Olekas said it would be best for Laura Matjošaitytė, a member of the Central Electoral Commission, to resign herself after reports that she consulted the Nemuno aušra party. LRT reported that conservatives and liberals are seeking her dismissal.

“It would be best if Ms Laura wrote a resignation statement herself and the problem would be resolved. If we do not receive such a statement, we will consider other measures,” Olekas told reporters at the Seimas.

He said he would wait several days for her decision, but added that he had not yet spoken to Matjošaitytė personally.

The Central Electoral Commission said on Monday that metadata showed Matjošaitytė had prepared Nemuno aušra’s response to the commission on party membership fee issues in 2024. The commission will decide at a meeting on Thursday whether to launch an investigation into the consultations.

Complaints concerning Matjošaitytė have been submitted to the Central Electoral Commission, the Lithuanian Bar Association and the Chief Official Ethics Commission. The ethics commission decided last week to gather additional information before deciding whether to open an investigation.

Liberal lawmakers said on Monday that they planned to initiate a no-confidence procedure against Matjošaitytė. Conservatives announced on Tuesday that they would ask the parliament speaker to dismiss her.

The controversy followed a report by the news portal Delfi that Matjošaitytė may have advised Nemuno aušra before the 2024 parliamentary election and helped the party prepare a response to the Central Electoral Commission.

Nemuno aušra leader Remigijus Žemaitaitis said the party had consulted Matjošaitytė on various issues but had not paid her. Matjošaitytė said she had not received “a single euro” for the consultations. The Central Electoral Commission said it had found no expenditure for her legal services in the party’s financial documents.

Delfi also reported that Matjošaitytė had sought to conceal her involvement. According to the portal, in September 2024 she sent the party’s deputy chairman, Robertas Puchovičius, a draft response to the commission and asked him to transfer it to a Word document he had created so that her metadata would not remain. Puchovičius told Delfi that he did not remember receiving such an email.