5.9 E-participation
Youth e-participation is one of the priorities of Lithuanian youth NGOs. Lithuania ranks 24rd in embracing innovation and utilizing ICTs to deliver services and engage people in decision-making processes according to UN E-Government Survey 2022 which measures e-government effectiveness in the delivery of basic economic and social services to people in five sectors, namely education, health, labour and employment, finance and social welfare, however information on youth e-participation is not available in this study. The topic of e-voting has been discussed in Lithuania for a long time. The World Lithuanian Community and the commission of the Lithuanian parliament passed a resolution in 2010 to suggest moving forward with internet-based voting, but discussions continue with no decision. In 2015 Lithuania’s parliament has voted against amendments to election laws that would have legalized internet voting, and rejected the possibility of revising them, despite the fact that around sixty-five percent in Lithuania support the implementation of online voting according surveys. Lithuanian youth organizations and the Central Electoral Commission of the Republic of Lithuania support an introduction of internet based voting.
On December 16, 2021, the Supreme Election Commission adopted a decision on the feasibility study of the online voting information system. An agreement was signed for the study of the possibilities of online voting on August 21, 2023.
In the Inter-institutional activity plan for the implementation of the 2011-2019 program for the development of the Lithuanian information society the first objective is to encourage the residents to use online public and administrative services, and to ensure the quality of data transmission and the infrastructure of functioning search systems, thus contributing to the development of e-democracy (hereinafter referred to as “Objective 1 of Priority 2”).
Digital-Lithuania is a Lithuanian IT company cluster that aims to spread the word of Lithuania‘s ICT sector potential, grow the competitiveness of the cluster members and offer eGovernment as well as eBusiness solutions to the Lithuanian and international companies. E-democracy system includes electronic tools and e-services (G2C) enabling people to express their opinion about the municipal life, comment on the preparation of legislation, access to relevant information about the decisions of local authorities, discuss and exchange the views, etc. The system enables publishing legal acts of municipalities on the website. It includes convenient survey, rating and other mechanisms allowing monitoring the steps and status of the problem solving, also a system for organizing the board meetings with a possibility of broadcasting information in internet.