| Abstract [eng] |
Fundamental Status of the Public Election Committees Public Election Committees are new political formations open to non-party people and are formed only during the election period. Election committees became very popular in Lithuania and created fierce competition for political parties. Nonetheless, Public Electoral Committees soon started to be questionable as they became an excellent space for businessmen, convicts and politicians who, after achieving nothing with their previous parties, join the Public Electoral Committee and thus are able to remain in the frontlines of politics. In addition to this, the legal regulation of Public Election Committees is ambiguous, allowing committee members to avoid both, responsibility against voters and financial transparency, which often leads to legal disputes. The aim of this thesis is to identify the root causes of disputes between Central Electoral Committees and the Central Electoral Commission as basis for changing the regulation of Public Election Committees. To do this, three tasks of the thesis are being solved: to present the constitutional concept of elections based on democratic values; to disclose the legal aspects of the validation and registration of Public Election Committees and to present the differences and similarities between political parties and Public Election Committees; to analyze legal election disputes and to identify the causes of these legal disputes. The analysis of legal and scientific literature has shown that elections, as the constitutional value of democracy, manifests itself by the fact that democratic elections are essentially a mechanism for expressing the will of citizens on the establishment of public authorities and political representatives who by governing the affairs of the state and through descition making are responsible for both – the life of the country and its citizens. The analysis of legal acts revealed that in order to participate in the elections, Public Electoral Committees are required: to make a list of its candidates; conclude an operating agreement, collect signatures of residents who support them; sign up; pay the election bail. The analysis of legal electoral disputes revealed that the disputes are classified into two groups: electoral disputes by election period and election disputes by election organization and execution. The analysis of legal electoral disputes allowed to distinguish the following main reasons of legal electoral disputes: misunderstanding of legal acts, misinterpretation and lack of precise legal regulation; uncertainties, gaps, ambiguities in the legal regulation of registration, funding and liability of election committees; Election Committees have strict requirements for registering new members; the actions of the election authorities and their staff are not clearly defined; electoral campaigning rules are often violated. |
