2013-12-02
National Audit Office: elections could be organised more efficiently
The National Audit Office conducted an audit to assess organization and implementation of elections and referenda over the period 2008–2012 and opportunities to make these processes more efficient.
“Elections are the most important form of citizens' participation in the management of the state and expression of the supreme sovereign power of the nation. Elections of the President of the Republic of Lithuania and to the European Parliament will be held in Lithuania next year. Auditors of the National Audit Office identified a few areas of election organization and implementation which should be improved. We hope that our audit recommendations will help organize and implement the upcoming elections more efficiently”, said Auditor General Giedrė Švedienė presenting the audit results.
The audit revealed that the time limit for the formation of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) before elections to the Seimas was not rational, CEC members lacked time to prepare for the elections, the composition of CEC members changed after the elections. However, in response to the public auditors’ findings, the CEC promptly drafted an amendment of the law providing for formation of the Commission after the parliamentary elections, which was passed by the Seimas.
The auditors also found that the number of voters in the elections to the Seimas in the largest and smallest constituencies differs almost twice and this difference tends to increase. For example, citizens of Lithuania who have emigrated from the country are registered in one constituency (Naujamiestis), so the number of voters in this constituency in the elections to the Seimas in 2012 exceeded the established amount. As a result, the value of votes becomes different because in case of similar voter turnout the vote in small constituencies is relatively more significant than in larger ones.
According to the National Audit Office, the number of members of electoral committees is not associated with the size of polling districts, so the workload of committee members in individual districts varies to a very large extent.
Delivery of poll cards to voters was found to have no major impact on voter turnout, however, it requires significant human, time and financial resources, so production and distribution of poll cards is inappropriate and more cost-effective ways to provide information to voters could be identified. In addition, failure to hand in a poll card misleads voters concerning the existing opportunity to vote without such card.
The audit found that members of polling district committees were not fully trained for elections and that information subsystems introduced since 2011 have not been used in many districts. This had an impact on the efficiency of the election data transmission and complicated voters’ opportunity to vote at another polling district than at their prescribed ones. During the elections to the Seimas in 2012, the CEC failed to ensure full provision of premises and equipment (computers, internet connection, etc.) necessary for voting to polling district committees and adequate coordination of its actions with constituency electoral committees, so it was difficult to dispose of the voting results in a prompt manner.
As to voter queues and voting confidentiality, the number of polling booths in districts was found to be disproportionate compared to the number of voters; also, the number of ballot papers filled out during elections is not taken into account, which determines long voter queues in larger districts. The Central Electoral Commission does not have an approved standard procedure for the preparation of polling booths, which are different in certain polling districts and some booths cannot ensure secrecy of voting.
The National Audit Office made recommendations to the Central Electoral Commission to ensure more efficient organization and implementation of elections and referenda.