The constitutional requirements for the electoral system following the Jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of Lithuania

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the Constitutional Court's doctrine of the electoral right. It carries out a survey of the Constitutional Court's jurisprudence on electoral issues, presenting an attempt to distinguish the most significant elements of the doctrine of elections, which have been formulated by the Constitutional Court. Since the Constitution does not name the system of elections to the Seimas or municipal councils, let alone to the European Parliament, a great responsibility rests with the legislator not only in choosing the type of the electoral system, but also in establishing various elements of that system, which must ensure the constitutional rights of participants of elections as well as the effectiveness of an elective representative political institution. As the acts of the Constitutional Court more often than not intervene in the electoral relations and, in certain cases, the acts regulating elections are assessed in the aspect of their compliance with the Constitution already after the election is over, the author of the article raises a question as to whether the Constitutional Court, in those cases when it recognises the provisions of the election laws as conflicting with the Constitution, has discretion or duty to give its opinion regarding the legality of such institutions that are being elected or have already been elected.