Lithuanian parliamentary election, 1992

Lithuanian parliamentary election, 1992
All 141 seats to the Seimas ; 71 seats were needed for a majority
Prime Minister before election; Aleksandras Abišala ; Independent	Prime Minister ; Bronislovas Lubys ; Independent

Last updated April 20, 2019

Parliamentary elections were held in Lithuania in two stages on 25 October and 15 November 1992.^[1] All 141 members of the Seimas, which replaced Supreme Council, were elected; 70 based on proportional party lists and 71 in single member constituencies. Where no candidate gained more than 50% of the vote on 25 October, a run-off was held on 15 November. The first round of the elections were held simultaneously with a referendum on the adoption of a new constitution.

Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. Lithuania is considered to be one of the Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, to the east of Sweden and Denmark. It is bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and Kaliningrad Oblast to the southwest. Lithuania has an estimated population of 2.8 million people as of 2019, and its capital and largest city is Vilnius. Other major cities are Kaunas and Klaipėda. Lithuanians are Baltic people. The official language, Lithuanian, along with Latvian, is one of only two living languages in the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family.

The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, or simply the Seimas, is the unicameral parliament of Lithuania. The Seimas constitutes the legislative branch of government in Lithuania, enacting laws and amendments to the Constitution, passing the budget, confirming the Prime Minister and the Government and controlling their activities.

The Supreme Council – Restoration Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, was the supreme governing body, elected in 1990. The first meeting was held on 10 March 1990, the last – 11 November 1992.

The result was a victory for the Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania (LDDP), which won 73 seats. Analysts attributed the surprisingly decisive victory to support from farmers and the Russian and Polish minorities, as well as widespread dissatisfaction with the economic situation and the policies of the ruling Sąjūdis political movement, which only won 30 seats. The new constitution was approved with 56.76% of registered voters in favor.^[2]

Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania social democratic political party in Lithuania

Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania was a social democratic political party in Lithuania in 1990s. The youth organization of LDDP was called Lithuanian Labourist Youth Union.

Sąjūdis, initially known as the Reform Movement of Lithuania, is the political organisation which led the struggle for Lithuanian independence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was established on 3 June 1988, and was led by Vytautas Landsbergis. Its goal was to seek the return of independent status for Lithuania.

In the aftermath, the leader of the LDDP, Algirdas Brazauskas, was elected the Speaker of the Sixth Seimas and assumed the title of acting President of Lithuania. Bronislovas Lubys was appointed Prime Minister.

Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas was the second President of a newly independent post-Soviet Lithuania from 1993 to 1998 and Prime Minister from 2001 to 2006.

The Sixth Seimas of Lithuania was the first parliament (Seimas) elected in Lithuania after it restored independence on 11 March 1990. Elections took place on 25 October 1992, with the second round on 15 November. In a surprisingly decisive outcome, the elections were won by Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania (LDDP), with 73 seats. The result reflected widespread dissatisfaction with the economic situation and the policies of the ruling Sąjūdis political movement in the preceding Supreme Council of Lithuania.

Bronislovas Lubys Lithuanian politician and businessman

Bronislovas Lubys was a Lithuanian entrepreneur, former Prime Minister of Lithuania, signatory of the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania, and businessman.

Electoral system

The elections were held under the terms of the new electoral law, adopted on 9 July 1992; on the same day, the election date was set for 25 October. The law provided for a mixed electoral system, with 70 MPs elected on proportional party lists and 71 MPs in single member constituencies. Run-off elections were to be held on 15 November in constituencies where no candidate received at least 50% of the votes cast.

The two-round system is a voting method used to elect a single winner, where the voter casts a single vote for their chosen candidate. However, if no candidate receives the required number of votes, then those candidates having less than a certain proportion of the votes, or all but the two candidates receiving the most votes, are eliminated, and a second round of voting is held.

The mixed electoral system was a compromise between the two main political powers, the Sąjūdis coalition, which preferred the majority rule, and the ex-communist LDDP, which proposed proportional representation. The latter was confident of the appeal its political stance had with the voters but lacked popular personalities, while Sąjūdis was concerned about its falling approval ratings but counted among its members many of the individuals that had led Lithuania to independence from the Soviet Union. The mixed system was also expected to strike a balance between MPs representing the interests of their constituencies and the interests of their parties.^[2]

Majority rule is a decision rule that selects alternatives which have a majority, that is, more than half the votes. It is the binary decision rule used most often in influential decision-making bodies, including all the legislatures of democratic nations.

Proportional representation (PR) characterizes electoral systems in which divisions in an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. If n% of the electorate support a particular political party, then roughly n% of seats will be won by that party. The essence of such systems is that all votes contribute to the result - not just a plurality, or a bare majority. The most prevalent forms of proportional representation all require the use of multiple-member voting districts, as it is not possible to fill a single seat in a proportional manner. In fact, the implementations of PR that achieve the highest levels of proportionality tend to include districts with large numbers of seats.

The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. Nominally a union of multiple national Soviet republics, its government and economy were highly centralized. The country was a one-party state, governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital in its largest republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Other major urban centres were Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Alma-Ata, and Novosibirsk. It spanned over 10,000 kilometres east to west across 11 time zones, and over 7,200 kilometres north to south. It had five climate zones: tundra, taiga, steppes, desert and mountains.

To take any of the 70 seats allocated proportionally, the party needed to receive at least 4% of the popular vote. The threshold did not apply to electoral lists representing national minorities.^[2]

Suffrage was granted based on citizenship of the former Soviet Union (with exceptions) as opposed to being based solely on the citizenship law of the pre-war Lithuanian republic.

Campaign

The main challenger to the ruling Sąjūdis nationalist movement, led by outgoing Chairman of the Supreme Council of Lithuania Vytautas Landsbergis, was the LDDP headed by Brazauskas. Sąjūdis – which had controlled the Supreme Council since February 1990 and spearheaded the move to independence – was criticized for the country's economic woes, while their opponents called for a slowdown in the pace of change to a free-market system and improved relations with Russia.^[3] In the run-up to the elections, Sąjūdis portrayed the opposing political groups as communist and reactionary, opposed to independence and democracy. The LDDP proclaimed their political principles, including the foreign policy aims of membership of the Council of Europe, association agreement with the European Community, agreements with the International Monetary Fund and neighborly relations with Poland. They also called for agreements with Russia in order to secure traditional sources for materials and trade.^[2]

Altogether 26 parties and political movements contested the elections, with 486 candidates contesting the single-seat constituencies. Opinion polls suggested that no political group would win a decisive majority and a coalition government seemed likely. Most participating parties ruled out joining a coalition government with the LDDP.^[2]

Results

Polling procedures were witnessed by international observers. The LDDP won 73 seats, with analysts attributing their victory, among other things, to the party's support from farmers and the Russian and Polish minorities, as well as popular anger about the economic crisis, in particular the fuel shortages since Russia, the main supplier, had cut off imports.^[3] The results showed widespread desire for a different political direction and dissatisfaction with the confrontational approach to politics used by Sąjūdis. The elections were even more disappointing for centrist political groups, which only received around 15% of the vote, despite many prominent individuals in their ranks.^[2]

Party	Proportional			Constituency						Total seats
	Proportional			First round			Second round
	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania	817,331	43.98	36	642,423	34.98	8	587,055	43.96	29	73
Sąjūdis coalition	393,500	21.17	17	338,531	18.43	1	331,221	24.80	12	30
LKDP–LPKTS–LDP	234,368	12.61	10	222,183	12.10	0	167,492	12.54	8	18
Social Democratic Party of Lithuania	112,410	6.05	5	166,277	9.05	0	51,487	3.86	3	8
LKDS–LTJS	66,027	3.55	0	24,363	1.33	0	11,591	0.87	1	1
Lithuanian Centre Movement	46,908	2.52	0	45,652	2.49	0	20,245	1.52	2	2
Association of Poles in Lithuania	39,772	2.14	2	35,191	1.92	1	7,304	0.55	1	4
LTS–NP	36,916	1.99	0	95,228	5.19	0	87,176	6.53	4	4
Liberal Union of Lithuania	28,091	1.51	0	48,120	2.62	0	–	–	–	0
Lithuanian Liberty League	22,034	1.19	0	11,616	0.63	0	–	–	–	0
National Progress Movement	19,835	1.07	0	59,496	3.24	0	16,582	1.24	0	0
Moderates Movement	13,002	0.70	0	41,223	2.24	0	9,816	0.74	0	0
Socio-Political Movement for Social Justice	9,730	0.52	0	5,013	0.27	0	–	–	–	0
Lithuanian Liberty Union	7,760	0.42	0	5,752	0.31	0	–	–	–	0
Lithuanian Movement "Chernobyl"	4,827	0.26	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	0
Lithuanian Commonwealth	4,159	0.22	0	7,996	0.44	0	5,770	0.43	0	0
Union of Lithuania's Patriots	1,904	0.10	0	582	0.03	0	–	–	–	0
Lithuanian Green Party	–	–	–	6,651	0.36	0	9,329	0.70	0	0
Lithuanian Consultative Assembly	–	–	–	5,175	0.28	0	–	–	–	0
Temperance Movement	–	–	–	970	0.05	0	–	–	–	0
Independents	–	–	–	74,004	4.03	0	30,432	2.28	1	1
Invalid/blank votes	59,453	–	–	81,581	–	–		–	–	–
Total	1,918,027	100	70	1,918,027	100	10	1,335,500	100	61	141
Registered voters/turnout	2,549,952	75.29	–	–	–	–	–	64.76	–	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver, European Election Database

Aftermath

The decisive outcome of the elections surprised observers and even the LDDP themselves, who had expected to win 15–17 seats^[2] and did not have enough names on its electoral list.^[4] Sąjūdis reacted to their loss with disbelief and encouraged its supporters to join acts of civil disobedience.^[2]

In the first session of the newly elected Sixth Seimas, Brazauskas was elected the Speaker of the Seimas and assumed the title of acting President of Lithuania. Brazauskas would go on to be elected President on 14 February 1993 in the country's first presidential elections. On 1 December 1992, Bronislovas Lubys, an independent business manager and politician, supported by the LDDP, was appointed as the Prime Minister.

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References

↑ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1201 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Blažytė-Baužienė, Danutė; Tamošaitis, Mindaugas; Truska, Liudas (2009). Lietuvos Seimo Istorija. XX-XXI a. pradžia (in Lithuanian). Lithuania: Baltos Lankos. pp. 336–341. ISBN 978-9955-23-322-0.
1 2 Elections held in 1992 Inter-Parliamentary Union
↑ Sakalas, Aloyzas (11 April 2011). "Kodėl Sąjūdis pralaimėjo 1992 m. rinkimus" [Why Sąjūdis lost the 1992 elections] (in Lithuanian). Delfi.lt. Retrieved 17 January 2016.

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[NS-1] Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1201 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7

[SeimoIstorija-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Blažytė-Baužienė, Danutė; Tamošaitis, Mindaugas; Truska, Liudas (2009). Lietuvos Seimo Istorija. XX-XXI a. pradžia (in Lithuanian). Lithuania: Baltos Lankos. pp. 336–341. ISBN 978-9955-23-322-0.

[IPU-3] 1 2 Elections held in 1992 Inter-Parliamentary Union

[4] Sakalas, Aloyzas (11 April 2011). "Kodėl Sąjūdis pralaimėjo 1992 m. rinkimus" [Why Sąjūdis lost the 1992 elections] (in Lithuanian). Delfi.lt. Retrieved 17 January 2016.

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See also: Elections in the Klaipėda Region • Elections in Central Lithuania