A political party in Lithuania – shall be a public legal person who has its own name, has been established pursuant to this Law, and whose purpose is to meet political interests of its members, to assist in expressing the political will of the citizens of the Republic of Lithuania, in seeking to implement state power and the right to self-government.
The citizens of the Republic of Lithuania shall have the right to freely join political parties, participate in their activities and secede from them. All political parties within the territory of the Republic of Lithuania shall act freely and independently. State and municipal institutions, their officers, other legal and natural persons shall be prohibited from interfering in internal affairs of political parties.
The citizens of the Republic of Lithuania aged 18 and over may be founders and members of a political party. In order to establish a political party it shall be necessary that a political party would have in the Republic of Lithuania not less than one thousand founders. At their own or their representatives’ congress (meeting, conference), they must adopt a statute, a programme of the political party and elect management bodies of the political party.
A organisational structure of political parties shall be based only on the territorial principle. Branches of political parties may not be established and operate in workplaces. It shall be prohibited to establish and operate the political parties whose founding documents or programme-related documents propagate or who practise national, racial, religious, or social inequality and hatred, methods of authoritarian or totalitarian rule, forcible seizure of power, war and violence propaganda, violations of human rights and freedoms, public order, other ideas and actions conflicting with the Constitution of the republic of Lithuania, laws of the Republic of Lithuania and inconsistent with universally-recognized rules of international law. Political parties shall act in compliance with their statutes.
A statute shall be a founding document of a political party. Political parties shall be recorded in the Register of Legal Persons. Reliability of the data presented by political parties to the Register of Legal Persons, compliance of statutes, programmes or their amendments with the requirements of laws shall be attested by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania.
A statute of a political party shall indicate:
- the name of the political party;
- the legal form of the political party – political party;
- the procedure for changing the seat of the political party;
- objectives of activities of the political party. The must be defined expressly and properly, indicating the sphere and types of activities;
- the conditions and procedure for joining the party and seceding, expelling from it;
- the rights and duties of members of the political party;
- the procedure for establishing branches of the political party, terminating their activities;
- the competence, periodicity of a congress (meeting, conference) of the political party, as well as the procedure for convening it and taking decisions;
- the collegiate management bodies of the political party, their competence, the procedure for electing and recalling them, the period of time for which the collegiate management bodies may be elected, the procedure for taking their decisions;
- the procedure for electing and recalling the leader of the political party, the period of his competence for which he may be elected;
- the procedure of accountability of the management bodies of the political party to a congress (meeting, conference) and the procedure of control over their activities;
- the procedure for amending the statute and programme of the political party;
- the symbols of the political party, if the political party plans to have them;
- the procedure of control over the property and funds of the political party;
- the duration of activities of the political party, if it is limited;
- termination of the political party.
The statue of a political party, which is being founded, must be signed by a representative authorised by the founders of a political party. The amended statute of the founded political party shall be signed by the leader of the political party. Political parties may set up branches, representative offices and other structural subdivisions. Branches, representative offices and other structural subdivisions of a political party shall not be legal persons. Branches and representative offices of a political party shall act in accordance with the statute approved by the political party. Having set up a branch or a representative office, a political party must, within 30 days from the setting-up, submit an application of a set form requesting to register the branch or representative office in the Register of Legal Persons in accordance with the procedure laid down by the Register of Legal Persons.
Political parties shall be deemed to be founded from their recording in the Register of Legal Persons.