Election watchdog seeks ruling against Lithuanian Regions Party

Lithuania’s Central Electoral Commission investigators have proposed finding that the Lithuanian Regions Party seriously violated the law by using state budget funds for vehicle rental and fuel expenses, LRT reported, citing BNS.

The investigators say the party may have used 34,200 euros in budget funds to rent a vehicle for expenses unrelated to its activities, and another 10,700 euros to pay for fuel for a vehicle that was neither owned nor rented by the party.

They also identified 76,200 euros in transfers to party member Vytautas Kamblevičius without sufficient justification for the vehicle rental price. The proposed decision says the party paid a rental fee above the market rate.

The investigators further suspect that the party violated the Financial Accounting Law by failing to support 34,200 euros in transactions with accounting documents and by not providing calculations justifying the rental price.

The proposed decision recommends that the party recover 76,200 euros from Kamblevičius for vehicle rental and 10,700 euros for fuel, for a total of 86,900 euros. It also recommends requiring the party’s chairperson to ensure that documents supporting financial transactions and the use of rented vehicles for party activities are collected in the future.

The commission is also being asked to notify the State Tax Inspectorate, the Special Investigation Service and the General Prosecutor’s Office about the possible violations.

Investigators found that the party had not provided documents supporting the rental price or other expenses for Kamblevičius’s diesel BMW X5 for more than a year and a half. According to the investigation report, 59,800 euros in rental, fuel and personal income tax expenses for the vehicle can be considered partially justified.

Those expenses were supported only by invoices from Viada LT covering the period from August 2021 to early 2025.

The report says the party provided no documents or objective data showing that a petrol Hyundai Santa Fe, for which no rental agreement had been signed, was intended for or used in the party’s activities.

The party paid 10,700 euros in state funds for fuel for that vehicle, which investigators said was 1.8 times higher than the fuel costs for the BMW X5. During the period when the BMW X5 was rented to the party, Kamblevičius also used the Hyundai Santa Fe, which belonged to him.

Investigators said the Hyundai was not rented by the party or owned by it, its use for party activities had not been documented, and no evidence had been provided that it was used for party rather than personal purposes.

BNS was unable to reach Lithuanian Regions Party chair Giedrė Pavasarytė or Kamblevičius on Wednesday.

The Central Electoral Commission had planned to consider the proposed decision at its meeting on Thursday, but the issue is likely to be postponed after a request was made for more time to review the investigation report.

“As practice shows, the commission is generally inclined to allow time to review the data and consult lawyers, so it is likely that a decision may be made to postpone it,” commission spokeswoman Indrė Ramanavičienė told BNS.

The Lithuanian Regions Party is a non-parliamentary political party. In the 2023 municipal elections, it won 56 council seats, while its candidate Živilė Pinskuvienė won the mayoral position in the Širvintos district.