Suffrage Universel
le droit de vote des étrangers
Le droit de vote des étrangers en Lituanie
http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2002/05/3-CEE/cee-220502.asp
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 6, No. 95, Part II, 22 May 2002
COMPROMISE REACHED ON LITHUANIAN CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT
The planned second vote in the parliament on amendments to Article 119 of the Lithuanian Constitution was postponed when the ruling Social Democrats and the opposition Liberal Union reached a compromise from the scheduled 21 May to mid-June, "Kauno diena" reported the next day. The amendments, which the parliament had approved in January by a vote of 108 to two, with one abstention (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 28 January 2002), would extend the term of local council deputies from three to four years and allow noncitizens permanently residing in Lithuania to elect and be elected to local councils. The two parties agreed that the four-year term for council deputies would go into effect beginning in 2003, but the extension to noncitizens only upon Lithuania's entry into the European Union. The Social Democrats apparently agreed to the compromise when it became clear that they could not gather the 94 votes needed to approve the amendments without the support of the Liberal Democrats, who according to unofficial reports had requested support for the ouster of Vilnius Mayor Arturas Zuokas in exchange. SG
http://www.law.nyu.edu/eecr/vol11num3/constitutionwatch/lithuania_print.html
New York University School of Law, East European Constitutional Review, Volume 11 Number 3, Summer 2002
Lithuania -
On June 20, parliament amended Art. 119 of the Constitution to allow foreign residents the right to vote in local elections. The second and final vote was backed by 105 deputies, with 14 voting against, and 4 abstaining. According to Art. 148 of the Constitution, two-thirds of parliament's 141 members are required to adopt a constitutional amendment in two separate votes no less than three months apart.The amendment is equally applicable to any noncitizen living in the country and was not designed specifically to apply to the Russian population. Contrary to Latvia and Estonia, Lithuania did not have a sizable Russian minority, which amounts to less then 7 percent of the total population. The latest official number of noncitizens in Lithuania (including Russian citizens) is 0.4 percent or some 15,000 people. The amended article, which was adopted in order to comply with EU standards, allows all permanent foreign residents to vote in local elections; the opposition wanted to extend this only to permanent residents who are citizens of EU states. In the EU, noncitizen permanent residents may vote in local or municipal elections although this right is not extended to the national ballots. Lithuania is trying to complete EU accession talks this year and become a member in 2004. It has closed 28 of the 31 chapters of the acquis communautaire.