Lithuania in the News
16th October 2016
A Change of Government Predicted After the 2016 Lithuanian Parliamentary Elections
Gabrielius Landsbergis with a greetings message as TS-LKP President
on the occasion of Lithuania’s Independence Day , February 16, 2016.
Photo courtesy tsajunga.lt
The first round of the 2016 Lithuanian parliamentary elections took place last Sunday, October 9, with the second round to follow two weeks later, on October 23. The first round produced an upset for the current coalition government, led by the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania (“Lietuvos Socialdemokratų Partija” – LSDP). The largest number of seats were won by the Homeland Union - Lithuanian Christian Democrats (“Tėvynės Sąjunga - Lietuvos Krikščionys Demokratai” – TS-LKD), with the Lithuanian Peasants and Greens Party (“Lietuvos Valstiečių ir Žaliųjų Sąjunga” - LVŽS) close behind.
In Lithuanian Parliament (“Seimas”) there are 141 seats to be filled. Slightly more than half of the seats (71 seats) are elected in single-seat constituencies elected by majority vote. For the other 70 seats there is a nationwide constituency, in which seats are allocated on a proportional basis.
In only a few of the single-member seats a majority was achieved by any candidate. The remainder of these seats will be decided in the second round, when the candidates with the largest number of votes in the first round will compete against each other. On the other hand, in the nationwide constituency TS-LKD won largest number of seats (20) and LVŽS won 19. With the TS-LKD also doing well in the single seat constituencies, it is on track to be the leading party in any coalition government to be formed.
The leader of TS-LDK is Gabrielius Landsbergis, who also won the largest number of votes by any candidate, is on track to become next Prime Minister. Aged 34 years, he would then become the youngest Prime Minister in the EU. He is currently an active member the EU Parliament. His grandfather, Vytautas Landsbergis, was the de-facto first President of Lithuania after Lithuania re-established its independence in 1990. He is also the grand-nephew of Gabrielius Žemkalnis, an Australian Lithuanian from Melbourne, who in 2013-2014 was the President of the Federal Executive of Australian Lithuanian Community.

Further information:
http://www.delfi.lt/projektai/archive/print.php?id=72510294
http://www.delfi.lt/archive/print.php?id=72519512
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_parliamentary_election,_2016