MP challenges LRT council rules on advance voting

Conservative MP Giedrė Balčytytė has asked Lithuania’s Supreme Administrative Court to review rules allowing members of the LRT Council, the national broadcaster’s governing body, to vote in advance. LRT reported that her challenge followed a council member’s advance vote on a decision concerning a violation by LRT’s director general.

Balčytytė argues that a member who submits a vote before a meeting cannot assess proposals or their reasoning as they are presented. The council’s rules do not require confirmation that an advance vote matches the proposal ultimately put to a vote, her court filing says.

The rules allow council members to vote in writing ahead of a meeting and count them as attending. As a result, advance votes can affect both the outcome and whether a quorum is met. Balčytytė says the Law on the National Radio and Television of Lithuania does not provide for advance voting or allow such votes to count as attendance.

The law requires more than half of council members to attend for a meeting to be valid. Decisions generally require votes from more than half of all council members, with some exceptions. Balčytytė says the law distinguishes between the number of members attending and the number of votes needed to adopt a decision, and that an advance vote alone does not establish a quorum.

She argues that the council exceeded its authority and that its rules conflict with the law. While regulations may set out how statutory provisions are applied, she says, they cannot change them. Her filing adds that participation does not require being in the same room: the council rules separately provide for remote attendance, which allows members to hear arguments, ask questions and consider the final text before voting.

On September 22, the council found LRT director general Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė had committed a violation by failing to disclose information about people from whom the institution had purchased services. It classified the violation as simple rather than serious. Under that decision, she can be dismissed only if she commits another violation in a similar area within a year.

After the meeting, council chair Mindaugas Jurkynas said 11 members had attended in person and one had submitted an advance vote. Four members did not take part in the vote on whether a violation had occurred. Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė has asked the council to reconsider its decision.