The conservatives in parliament have appealed to the Central Election Commission to investigate the sources of funding of “Nemunas Aušros”.

According to lawmakers who signed the appeal to the Central Election Commission, most political parties participating in the parliamentary elections stated that the election deposit for single-term candidates should be paid by the nominated candidate himself or partially paid by the nominating political party.

According to them, public information indicates that the party is nominating 56 candidates for a single mandate and has paid a deposit of 113,000 euros for this purpose. The party chairman R. Žemaitaitis said that the funds for the bail came from donations from natural persons.

According to the head of the election staff of TS-LKD Seimas, Mindaugas Lingė, “Nemunas aušra” has no right to use funds donated by natural persons to pay the election deposits of 56 candidates for single mandates, as this is prohibited by the Constitution, the Election Code and the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Political Organization.

“It is necessary to find out whether there were serious violations of party financing procedures. The party was not funded from the state budget, but collected 1.3 million euros from personal income tax (PIT), so the only legal source of funds remained membership fees. It is difficult to believe that a new party could collect more membership fees than other parties that have existed for many years,” the report quoted Mr Lingi as saying.

“According to R. Žemaitaitis’s own explanation, ‘everyone collected as much as they could’, but in principle, such funds do not exist – natural persons cannot donate to political parties. Individuals can only donate to a separate account for election campaigns,” he added.

The appeal to the Central Election Commission was signed by conservatives Mindaugas Lingė, Aistė Gedvilienė, Dalia Asanavičiūtė and Vilius Semeška.

Remigijus Žemaitaitis himself said that TS-LKD only wanted to divert attention from the scandal that happened to them.

“It’s a shame. Diverting the attention of Gabriliuks (G. Landsbergis – ELTA) was not very successful and they are trying to use Dzemetatis again for this purpose,” the chairman of “Nemunas aushras” told ELTA on Tuesday.

The head of the TS-LKD Seimas election staff, Mindaugas Lingė, said on Tuesday that Nemunas Aušra had no right to use funds donated by individuals to pay the election deposits of candidates in 56 single-mandate constituencies.

In turn, R. Dzemetatis claimed that the political forces paid the election bonds for the candidates nominated in the single-mandate constituencies with their own funds, which they received as party membership fees. Therefore, according to him, “Nemunas Aušra” did not violate the Electoral Law or other legal acts.

“It is allowed by law. We do not pay from the election account. You pay from the party account, which is the membership’s dues,” explained R. Žemaitaitis.