Fifteen millionaires on Lithuanian parliamentary candidates list: electoral authority

A total of 1,416 candidates were registered to participate in Lithuania's national elections this fall, 15 of them are millionaires, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) announced Tuesday.

After registering all the candidates, the commission revealed statistical portrait of parliamentary candidates.

According to the CEC, the average statistical candidate is a 48.9 years old male with declared assets of nearly 166,000 euros (about 185,920 U.S. dollars).

Sixty-nine percent of all candidates are men. They dominate nearly all parties' lists of candidates, except the Electoral Action of Poles - Christian Families Alliance with 52 percent of women on the alliance's candidates list, the CEC said.

Lithuanian Peasant and Greens Party presented the list with the smallest female candidates share, amounting to 23 percent.

The majority of candidates (72 percent) stated that they had university degree, while 2.6 percent said they acquired college education, 1.3 percent secondary education with professional orientation. 1.1 percent of candidates declared secondary education. 23 percent of candidates did not specify education level in their questionnaires.

The candidates were obliged to declare their revenues and assets. Based on the commission's data, the top 20 richest candidates have as many as 15 millionaires.

Vidmantas Martikonis from the Liberal Movement with 19.2 million euros ranks first, Ramunas Karbauskis (Lithuanian Peasant and Greens Union, 11.5 million euros) - second, Bronius Bradauskas (Social Democratic Party, 7.3 million euros) - third.

Lithuania holds its parliamentary elections on Oct. 9. (1 euro = 1.12 U.S. dollars) Endit