Election commission weighs whether Paluckas breached Election Code

Lithuania’s Central Electoral Commission will decide Thursday whether former Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas seriously violated the Election Code by providing information about his criminal conviction in a 2024 parliamentary candidate questionnaire, LRT reported.

The commission’s investigation group has recommended finding that Paluckas did not commit the alleged violation.

It also recommends stating that Paluckas was not subject in 2024 to restrictions on his right to stand for election because he had not completed his sentence, and that there is no basis for claiming he provided false information in the questionnaire.

The investigation began in May after a request from the opposition Homeland Union Lithuanian Christian Democrats faction. The conservatives claimed Paluckas had knowingly provided incorrect information about serving his sentence and asked the commission to determine whether this constituted a serious violation that could allow Parliament to consider ending his mandate.

Last summer, Laisvės TV and the investigative journalism centre Siena reported that Paluckas had only completed repayment of 16,500 euros in damages awarded to the Vilnius municipality in the so-called rat case the previous July, when he transferred the remaining 4,900 euros.

Paluckas had agreed with the municipality to make the payment by the end of 2015. He said he had forgotten to repay the damages, apologised and paid the accumulated interest.

In 2012, Lithuania’s Supreme Court found that Paluckas had abused his office while serving as director of the Vilnius municipal administration by favouring a municipal company that provided rodent-control services. He received a two-year suspended prison sentence and was ordered to pay 16,500 euros in damages in response to a civil claim by the municipality.

After reports about the unpaid damages, law enforcement opened pretrial investigations into his business activities and questions were raised about his involvement in companies and links to certain businesspeople. Paluckas resigned as prime minister last July.

Conservatives also unsuccessfully sought to initiate impeachment proceedings against him last year, alleging that, while serving as a member of Parliament and prime minister, he had taken care of the affairs of his companies Garnis and Emus, participated in business decisions and acted in their interests.