Parliamentary elections were held in Lithuania on 10 October 2004, with a second round on 24 October 2004 in the constituencies where no candidate won a majority in the first round of voting. All 141 seats in the Seimas were up for election; 71 in single-seat constituencies elected by majority vote and the remaining 70 in a nationwide constituency based on proportional representation.
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.
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 Labour Party is a centre-left populist political party in Lithuania. The party was founded in 2003 by the Russian-born millionaire businessman Viktor Uspaskich.
The Eighth Seimas of Lithuania was a parliament (Seimas) elected in Lithuania. Elections took place on 8 October 2000. The Seimas commenced its work on 19 October 2000 and served a four-year term, with the last session on 11 November 2004.
The Social Democratic Party of Lithuania is a social-democratic political party in Lithuania. Founded as an underground Marxist organization in 1896, it is the oldest extant party in Lithuania. During the period of Soviet occupation, the party was forced into exile, emerging once again in Lithuania in 1989.
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 Prime Minister of Lithuania is the head of the Government of Lithuania. The prime minister is Lithuania's head of government and is appointed by the President with the assent of the Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas. The modern office of Prime Minister was established in 1990, during the turmoil surrounding the Soviet Union's collapse, although the official title was "Chairperson of the Council of Ministers" until 25 November 1992.
The Liberal Union of Lithuania was a political party in Lithuania. At its peak, the party had 33 of 141 members of the Seimas.
The New Union was a social-liberal political party in Lithuania. The NS was a member of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) and an observer of the Liberal International. It was founded in 1998 and is led by Artūras Paulauskas.
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.
The New Democracy Party was a political party in Lithuania.
Paksas, who had by then left the Liberal Union, was elected the President of Lithuania in 2003. In April 2004 he was impeached by the Seimas and removed from office, with Paulauskas serving as the acting president until elections later that year.
All seats in the 141-member Seimas were up for election in parallel voting, with 71 members elected in single-seat constituencies and 70 members elected by proportional representation in a single nationwide constituency. Voting in the elections was open to all citizens of Lithuania who are at least 18-years-old.
The first round took place on 10 October 2004. 70 seats were allocated to the participating political parties using the largest remainder method, with a 5% threshold (7% for multi-party lists) to enter the parliament. Candidates took the seats allocated to their parties based on the preference lists submitted before the elections and adjusted by preference votes given by the voters.[2]
In a change from the elections in 2000,[3] members of the Seimas in the 71 single-seat constituencies were once again elected by a majority vote, with a run-off held on 24 October.[2]
To be eligible for election, candidates had to be at least 25-years-old on the election day, not under allegiance to a foreign state and permanently resident in Lithuania. Persons serving or due to serve a sentence imposed by the court 65 days before the elections were not eligible. Also, judges, citizens performing military service, and servicemen of professional military service and officials of statutory institutions and establishments could not stand for election.
In May 2004, the Constitutional Court of Lithuania decided that a person removed from office through impeachement for breaching the oath of office can not stand in parliamentary or presidential elections, or serve on the government, disqualifying Paksas from the elections.[4]
Labour Party was founded in October 2003, a year before the elections, by a Russian-born businessman and member of the Seimas Viktor Uspaskich and won the elections to the European Parliament earlier in 2004. The populist party campaigned on the promise of increasing living standards and fighting corruption. Many of its promises, such as lowering prices by 10 to 20%, increasing the minimum salary and pensions, tax holidays for newly established companies, all within less than three years, were criticized by economists as unfeasible.[5] Nevertheless, the party garnered strong support in rural areas and small towns.[2]
"Working for Lithuania" was the coalition of the Social Democrats (led by Prime Minister, Algirdas Brazauskas) and the New Union (led by the Speaker of the Seimas, Artūras Paulauskas) parties, which had led the government since 2001. The coalition campaigned on their record in the government and promised further economic growth, lower unemployment and increases in salaries and pensions.[2]
Conservative Homeland Union, led by Andrius Kubilius, once again campaigned pointed to dangers posed to Lithuania by Russia.[2] The party allied itself with the Liberal and Centre Union, led by Artūras Zuokas but headed in the elections by Petras Auštrevičius. Several members of the party, including Zuokas, had been under investigation for corruption and financial fraud.[5]
Finally, the Liberal Democratic Party of Rolandas Paksas led a coalition "For the Order and Justice". Since Paksas was barred from participating in the elections, its electoral list was headed by Valentinas Mazuronis. Paksas had expressed hopes that the electoral list would win 50 seats in the Seimas.[5]
Altogether, around 600 candidates competed in the single-seat constituencies, while over 1,100 candidates were included in the electoral lists for the nationwide constituency.[2]
Results
The elections were won by the Labour Party, which claimed 39 of the 141 seats in the Seimas. Nevertheless, newspaper Rzeczpospolita indicated that the result was a disappointment for the party, which had expected a better result in the second round of voting in single-seat constituencies.[6]
Coalition "Working for Lithuania" finished second in elections, with Social Democrats and New Union winning 20 and 11 seats, respectively. Homeland Union won 25 seats, more than double their tally in the previous elections.
Several aspects of the electoral campaign and voting came under criticism. In particular, allegations of vote buying, mostly implicating the Labour Party, emerged in voting by post, prompting the Seimas to consider changes in voting procedures.[7] Social Democrats and New Union also accused the Labour Party of violating the rules for electoral campaigns and exceeding campaign spending limits.[8]
Government formation
Several possible coalitions emerged after the elections. Homeland Union and Liberal and Centre Union indicated their willingness to join a "rainbow" coalition with the Social Democrats, excluding only Labour and Liberal Democrats.[9] Labour joined forces with Peasants and New Democratic Party Union and invited Social Democrats to join.[10] Brazauskas initially ruled out a coalition with Labour,[11] but eventually Social Democrats and New Union joined forces with the Labour Party and the Peasants, with Brazauskas as the Prime Minister.[12]
Notes
↑ Includes 26 seats won by Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania and 19 won by Social Democratic Party of Lithuania. The two parties merged under the name of Social Democratic Party of Lithuania in 2001.
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