According to the public broadcaster, the speaker of the Seimas has instructed the parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Law Enforcement to gather further information.
„It raises concerns that a person appointed to such a responsible position is not behaving quite as one would expect them to. But we need to know the specific facts,“ Olekas told LRT television on Monday.
The Delfi portal reported that, ahead of the 2024 Seimas elections, the lawyer and former Central Electoral Commission (VRK) chairwoman Matjošaitytė had advised Nemuno Aušra, led by Remigijus Žemaitaitis, on membership fees and helped the party prepare a response to the VRK.
According to the portal’s information, she herself became a member of the Central Electoral Commission shortly afterwards. Still, she did not publicly disclose the services she had provided to this political party and did not recuse herself from deliberations on related matters.
When asked whether the party had paid her for the services provided, Matjošaitytė refused to disclose the information, stating that it was subject to legal professional privilege.
The Central Electoral Commission (VRK), for its part, reported that it had found no expenditure for the legal services provided by Ms Matjošaitytė in the financial documents submitted by Nemuno Aušra.
The Supreme Commission for Professional Ethics (VTEK) also received a complaint on Monday regarding Matjošaitytė’s alleged consultations with Nemuno Aušra. The Commission, having reviewed the information set out in the complaint and, where necessary, gathered additional evidence to substantiate it, will decide whether there are grounds to launch an investigation.
ELTA recalls that the Central Electoral Commission (VRK), which met a few weeks ago, found that Nemuno Aušra and its leader, Žemaitaitis, had seriously breached the law by accepting money from illegal sources of funding during the 2024 Seimas and presidential election campaigns.
Commission representatives who conducted the investigation established that Nemuno Aušra financed its political campaign for the 2024 Seimas elections through donations from legal entities and via third parties. This is considered a serious breach of the Electoral Code.
Furthermore, the party breached the law by accepting and using membership fees (EUR 4,300) paid via third parties, part of which consisted of funds from a legal entity.
The Central Electoral Commission also established that Nemuno Aušra financed its political campaign for the 2024 Seimas elections through a third party – the party’s deputy chair and head of the election campaign, Robert Puchovič.
It is alleged that he acted as an intermediary in transferring EUR 24,200 from the companies Tvari Statyba and Lajota to finance Nemuno Aušra’s political campaign for the Seimas elections.