Today (October 27th) citizens of 🇱🇹 Lithuania go to polls to vote in parliamentary elections!
Lithuanian parliament (Seimas) is unicameral and consists of 141 deputies (71 needed for majority), who are elected for a four-year term, 70 seats by proportional representation, and 71 in single-seat constituencies, using the two-round system (so it's roughly similar to system used in France). However, in 2022 a new provision was added in 2022 (so will be used for the first time) – leading candidate (in single-seat constituency) is elected in the first round, if they manage to get support of 1/5 of registered voters (but combined with usual turnout, it still means ~50% of votes cast). Read more here. Electoral threshold is 5% (national).
Turnout in last (2020) elections was 47.8 and 39.2%. In the first round two weeks ago it was 52.2%. Eight seats in single-seat lot were decided in the first round, which leaves 63 seats to be decided today.
Relevant parties and alliances taking part in the elections are:
| Name | Leader | Position | Affiliation | 2020 result | 1st round proportional result | 1st round seats | 2nd round seats | Total seats (change) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social Democrats (LSDP) | Vilija Blinkevičiūtė | centre-left (social democracy) | PES | 9.6% | 19.3% | 20 | TBA | (13) |
| Homeland Union (TS-LKD) | Gabrielius Landsbergis | centre-right (liberal conservative) | EPP | 25.8% | 18.0% | 18 | TBA | (50) |
| Dawn of Nemunas (NA) | Remigijus Žemaitaitis | right-wing (social nationalist) | – | new | 15.0% | 15 | TBA | (-) |
| For Lithuania (DSVL) | Saulius Skvernelis | centre-left (green, social conservative) | EGP | new | 9.2% | 8 | TBA | (-) |
| Liberals (LS) | Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen | centre-right (liberal) | ALDE | 7.0% | 7.7% | 8 | TBA | (13) |
| Lithuanian Farmers & Greens Union (LVŽS) | Ramūnas Karbauskis | centre-left (agrarian, social conservative) | ECR | 18.1% | 7.0% | 6 | TBA | (32) |
| Electoral Action of Poles (LLRA-KŠS) | Waldemar Tomaszewski | centre-right (Polish minority, conservative, pro-Russia) | ECR | 5.0% | 3.9% | 2 | TBA | (3) |
| Independents | 1 | TBA | (4) |
Further reading
Lithuania opposition seeks to cement election win in run-off votes (Euractiv)
Lithuania votes in second round of parliamentary elections (DW)
We shall leave detailed commentary (and any interesting trivia!) on elections and campaign, to our users. Feel free to correct or add anything!
Lithuanian parliamentary elections, 2nd round
byu/pothkan ineurope
by pothkan
1 comment
Centre-left coalition is almost a guarantee at this point with LSDP being the dominating party. However the intrigue is if LSDP+DSVL+LVŽS will be enough to form a strong majority (71 seats are needed but they are aiming for 80+) or they will need LLRA-KŠS and maybe even NA (both parties are populist and with ruzzian ties sadly). Inviting any of these would compromise LSDP’s reputation as they are seen as a traditional pro-western party even though they can only be called social democrats in terms of economic policies and are more conservative in terms of social and human rights policies.
Leaders of DSVL and LVŽS hate each other though and the former party split from the farmers after 2020 election when they lost the majority. So even if center left coalition forms it’s not guaranteed that it will govern for the whole 4 years as there are big egos and internal strifes in both smaller coalition partners.
In general not much should change in terms of foreign policy with support of Ukraine and strengthening of our own defence/army being the main focus points. LSDP is seen more of a regions than cities party so we can expect some tax rises for the high earners and businesses to boost pensions and social benefits.
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