Succesful Diaspora Voter Mobilization of Lithuanian Diaspora

One of ETTW’s top priorities is to make it easier for the European diasporas to participate in the democratic life of their countries of origin.

This includes both cultural activities and voting in European, national and regional/local elections.

To achieve this, active campaigning is important in order to make sure that they know when. where and how to vote.

The most succesful campaign this year has been carried out by the Lithuanian diaspora organizations, among them World Lithuanian Association, World Lithuanian Youth Association and Global Lithuanian Leaders.

As a consequence, in October 2020 the results of the Lithuanian elections showed that more than 30.000 Lithuanian diasporas had used their their right to vote, obtaining for the first time diaspora representation in the Lithuanian parliament and securing the diaspora’s constituency for the 2024 elections.

To learn more about this successful campaign, ETTW has met with representatives from two of the Lithuanian organizations. Participating from New York: Rimvydas Baltadounis (WLA); from Berlin: Ruta Naujokaite (Voter mobilization campaign DABAR, GLL) and from Brussels Gintaras Marijauskas (Lithuanians in Belgium).

The meeting was set up by our Latvian colleagues from ELA, Elina Pinto and Ilze Zilgalvis.

“The meeting was very interesting, especially in terms of lessons learned from the efforts deployed by our Lithuanian friends to reach out to their diaspora via the social media.

The outcome of their efforts could be measured with voter turn-out, and it proved quite impressive “, said ETTw president Pierre-Yves Le Borgn’ after the meeting.

It was agreed to set up a webinar/conference in January with the working title: Digital Diaspora – Voter Participation of the European Diaspora: The Lithuanian Example’  and invite ETTW members and partners to participate