Report: VRK member advised Nemunas Dawn before joining commission

LRT, citing the Delfi news portal, reported that lawyer Laura Matjošaitytė advised Remigijus Žemaitaitis’s Nemunas Dawn party on membership fee issues before the 2024 parliamentary elections and helped prepare the party’s response to the Central Electoral Commission.

Matjošaitytė, a former chair of the electoral commission, became one of its members shortly afterwards, according to the report. She did not publicly disclose the services provided to the party and did not recuse herself from considering related matters.

Asked whether the party had paid her for the services, Matjošaitytė declined to answer. She said the information was covered by professional legal confidentiality and that disclosing, collecting or using it would violate the law.

She also said she had no obligations restricting her actions or freedom to make decisions as an independent commission member.

“As an independent commission member, I make decisions autonomously. No one has the right to exert pressure or give mandatory instructions or orders regarding my vote,” Matjošaitytė told Delfi.

Robertas Puchovičius, the party’s deputy chair, told the portal that he did not know whether Nemunas Dawn had paid Matjošaitytė.

A few weeks ago, the Central Electoral Commission concluded that Nemunas Dawn and its leader, Žemaitaitis, had seriously violated the law by accepting funds from unlawful sources during the 2024 parliamentary and presidential election campaigns.

The commission found that Nemunas Dawn financed its 2024 parliamentary election campaign through donations from legal entities and through third parties. It also found that the party accepted and used EUR 4,300 in membership fees paid through third parties, some of which came from a legal entity.

The commission further determined that the party financed its campaign through Puchovičius, who was the deputy party chair and head of its election headquarters. He allegedly acted as an intermediary in transferring a total of EUR 24,200 from the companies Tvari statyba and Lajota to fund Nemunas Dawn’s parliamentary election campaign.