| Seimas | |
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Type | Unicameral |
| Leadership | |
| Speaker | Irena Degutienė, Homeland Union since 15 September 2009 |
| Structure | |
| Members | 141 |
| Political groups | Homeland Union (46) Social Democratic Party (24) Order and Justice/AWPL (17) Liberal and Centre Union (13) Liberal Movement (12) Mixed group (11) Labour Party (10) Christian Party (8) |
| Elections | |
| Voting system | Parallel voting with a 5% election threshold for proportional seats (7% for coalitions) |
| Last election | 12 and 26 October 2008 |
| Meeting place | |
| Seimas Palace, Vilnius | |
| Website | |
| www.lrs.lt | |
| Lithuania |
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The Seimas (full name: Seimas of the Lithuanian Republic, Lithuanian: Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas) is the unicameral Lithuanian parliament. It has 141 members that are elected for a four-year term. About half of the members of this legislative body are elected in individual constituencies (71), and the other half (70) are elected by nationwide vote according to proportional representation. A party must receive at least 5%, and a multi-party union at least 7%, of the national vote to be represented in the Seimas.
The word "Seimas" comes from a Lithuanian word Sueiga, suėjimas, which means "gathering" or "meeting".
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The Seimas uses parallel voting, with elections for the 70 proportional seats and the 71 constituency seats held on separate days. The proportional seats are allocated by the Hare quota, with a 5% election threshold (or 7% for electoral alliances) to gain list seats.
| Party | Votes (proportional) |
% | Seats | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| proportional | constituency | total | ||||
| Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats | 242,939 | 19.69 | 18 | 27 | 45 | |
| Social Democratic Party of Lithuania | 144,675 | 11.73 | 10 | 15 | 25 | |
| National Resurrection Party | 186,150 | 15.09 | 13 | 3 | 16 | |
| Order and Justice | 156,559 | 12.69 | 11 | 4 | 15 | |
| Liberal Movement | 70,549 | 5.72 | 5 | 6 | 11 | |
| Coalition Labour Party + Youth | 111,017 | 9.00 | 8 | 2 | 10 | |
| Liberal and Centre Union | 65,869 | 5.34 | 5 | 3 | 8 | |
| Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania | 59,222 | 4.80 | — | 3 | 3 | |
| Lithuanian Peasant Popular Union | 46,109 | 3.74 | — | 3 | 3 | |
| New Union (Social Liberals) | 44,935 | 3.64 | — | 1 | 1 | |
| Front | 39,966 | 3.24 | — | — | — | |
| Young Lithuania (Jaunoji Lietuva) | 21,545 | 1.75 | — | — | — | |
| Civic Democratic Party | 13,758 | 1.12 | — | — | — | |
| Union of the Russians of Lithuania | 11,323 | 0.92 | — | — | — | |
| Lithuanian Social Democratic Union (Lietuvos socialdemokratų sąjunga) | 10,614 | 0.86 | — | — | — | |
| Lithuanian Centre Party (Lietuvos centro partija) | 8,645 | 0.70 | — | — | — | |
| Independents | — | — | — | 4 | 4 | |
| Total (turnout 48.54%) | 1,233,875 | 100.00 | 70 | 71 | 141 | |
Seimas Palace (Lithuanian: Seimo Rūmai) was designed by architects Algimantas Nasvytis, his brother Vytautas Nasvytis, and Robertas Stasėnas.[2]
In the Seimas there are four plenary sitting a week - two on Tuesday and two on Thursday, which are represented by the speaker of the Seimas or his deputy. As a rule, all sittings of the Seimas are open.
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