The bulk of the funds – EUR 41.8 million – was spent on the salaries of the members of the electoral commissions, according to Indrė Ramanavičienė, adviser to the VRK head. Another EUR 27.4 thousand was paid as social security contributions made by the employer.
"This is the largest share of election spending at almost 80%, and the number of people who worked in the elections is also impressive. Some 20,000 members of electoral commissions worked in at least one election this year," Ramanavičienė told ELTA in a written comment.
Other costs included printing of election documents, office supplies, pays for polling stations and postal voting at over EUR 6.4 million.
The VRK also spent almost EUR 2.3 million on IT services and another EUR 1 million for transport services. The other EUR 721,000 covered election publicity and debate broadcasts.
On 12 May, Lithuania held the first round of the presidential election and a referendum on dual citizenship. On 26 May, the runoff voting followed to elect the country’s president. On 9 June, Lithuanians were electing their representatives in the European Parliament. The Seimas election took place on 13 and 27 October.
Despite the high costs, the election watchdog also managed to save EUR 3.8 million which will remain in the state budget.
Next year, three early municipal elections are scheduled to take place in Jonava, Joniškis and Panevėžys.