Liberal Movement to seek no-confidence vote against electoral commission member

Opposition Liberal Movement plans to initiate a no-confidence vote against Laura Matjošaitytė, a member of Lithuania’s Central Electoral Commission, after reports that she advised the Nemunas Dawn party as a lawyer and sought to conceal the relationship, LRT reported on Monday.

Liberal Movement lawmakers have also asked the Ministry of Justice to assess whether Matjošaitytė violated public and private interest rules by secretly advising the party.

Victoria Čmilytė-Nielsen, leader of the Liberal Movement’s parliamentary group and deputy speaker of the Seimas, said Matjošaitytė had not acted honestly or honourably as required by her oath because she concealed her links to Nemunas Dawn and did not withdraw from commission meetings examining the party’s finances.

“The financial history of Nemunas Dawn, covered up with lies, also reveals non-transparent links, when a lawyer received a position in a key state institution from the party for professional consultations before the election,” Čmilytė-Nielsen said.

She said the Seimas, which elected Matjošaitytė by secret ballot, had a duty to declare no confidence in her to protect the integrity of state institutions.

According to information reported by Delfi and cited by BNS, Matjošaitytė emailed Nemunas Dawn deputy chairman Robertas Puchovičius a draft response to the Central Electoral Commission on the party’s sources of funding in September 2024, slightly more than a month before the parliamentary election.

In the same email, she reportedly asked Puchovičius to transfer the response to a Word document he had created so that her metadata would not remain in the file.

Neither the party nor Matjošaitytė declared their previous cooperation. She initially refused to say whether she had been paid by the party, but later said she had earned no money. Matjošaitytė has declined to discuss the details of the professional relationship, citing lawyer-client confidentiality.

The Central Electoral Commission is currently investigating the scope of the consultations Matjošaitytė provided to Nemunas Dawn.

Matjošaitytė chaired the commission from 2017 to 2021. She returned as a commission member after her candidacy was put forward by then Justice Minister Rimantas Mockus, who had been delegated by Nemunas Dawn.

In May 2025, the newly formed commission considered violations of Nemunas Dawn’s political campaign financing rules. Matjošaitytė voted in favour of finding violations in some decisions and abstained in others. She said the votes did not create a conflict of interest or grounds for recusal because, after returning to the commission, she no longer advised political organisations.

Laura Matjošaitytė, Liberal Movement, Central Electoral Commission