Waldemar Tomaszewski – an official presidential candidate in Lithuania

The Chief Election Commission (ChEC) has registered today Waldemar Tomaszewski, the leader of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, the Member of the European Parliament, as an official presidential candidate in Lithuania. Today, the ChEC has also registered a candidate on the behalf of the Labour Party Artūras Paulauskas.

Such a decision was made unanimously by the members of the ChEC – after they had verified signatures supporting the candidates. The electoral staff of Waldemar Tomaszewski collected 51 thousand of signatures, while that of Artūras Paulauskas – 41 thousand of signatures. ChEC register only these candidates, who have collected at least 20 thousand signatures supporting their candidatures.

Such a strong support of W. Tomaszewski had not been affected even by the fact, that the signatures in support of his candidature had been collected within less than two weeks – as in the case of the electoral staff of Artūras Paulauskas. Other candidates had been collecting signatures for the whole month.

Today is the last day of returning the cards of collecting signatures to the Electoral Commission.

In the upcoming presidential elections will probably participate seven candidates: present president Dalia Grybauskaitė, Members of the European Parliament Waldemar Tomaszewski and Zigmantas Balčytis, candidate on the behalf of the Labour Party Artūras Paulauskas, mayor of Vilnius Artūras Zuokas, deputy Naglis Puteikis, and mayor of Ignalina Bronis Ropė.

We do not know whether the status of a candidate is going to be obtained by Linas Balsys, a former advisor of D. Grybauskaitė, whose electoral staff collected 20,5 thousand signatures. It is estimated that the ChEC invalidates averagely from 3 to 20 percent of signatures.

 An entrepreneur Vladas Lašas is not going to take part in the presidential elections, as he did not meet the required number of signatures. This requirement had not been met also by Rolandas Paulauskas, Jonas Lašinis, and Kristina Brazauskienė.

Source: http://www.l24.lt/pl/polityka/item/30198-waldemar-tomaszewski-oficjalnym-kandydatem-na-prezydenta-litwy

Tłumaczenie by Roksana Kasperek w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Roksana Kasperek within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.