Lithuania's Electoral System

Lithuania is a relatively new democracy with the first parliamentary elections being held in 2000. The system is a mixed system, or a second tier system, combining elements of both single-member district plurality systems (SMDP) and proportional representation systems (PR). In the case of Lithuania, Duverger's Law seems to apply as the proportional representation side of the system leads to a high number of parties and effective parties in Lithuania.

Using the formula N_eff = 1/∑(p²), where p is the proportion obtained by a particular party in a given election, I determined the effective number of parties in Lithuania. Using the number of seats obtained by a party in 2012, I found Lithuania to have 5.29 effective parties (Elections 2012).

Lithuania has a complex set of electoral rules that combine both the SMDP and PR systems. For parliamentary elections, 71 members of parliament are elected in single-member districts by an absolute majority vote (Lithuania Electoral, 2012). The direct magnitude for the state is 1, with one representative being elected per district. This rule holds true if 40 percent of registered voters turn out. If less than 40 percent participate in the election, the winner must have at least 20 percent of the votes (Lithuania Country, 2012). This aspect of the electoral rules is very much based on SMDP principles.

In addition to the SMDP system, there are 70 members of parliament that are elected on a proportional representation system. For this election the country as a whole forms one constituency (Lithuania Electoral, 2012). These seats are distributed through an open-list proportional representation system (Lithuania Country, 2012).The list system is administered using “simple quotient and greatest remainders rules” (Lithuania Electoral, 2012). Each party receives a certain number of seats, as determined by the proportion of the vote they received, and those with the most votes on that party list receive preferential admission to the parliament. There is no threshold that stipulates a certain percentage of the vote that must be obtained by a party to gain seats; any party with a high enough percentage to qualify under the formulas mentioned above has the ability to gain seats. In 2012 parties with as little as 3 percent of the vote received parliamentary seats (Elections 2012).

Duverger’s law holds true in Lithuania. The number of parties and effective parties in Lithuania is high because of the nature of the system. As a partly proportionally representative system the state tends to encourage a number of parties to gain power and participate in the democratic process. This shows that the effective number of parties is indeed a function of the electoral rules.

  

REFERENCES

Elections in Lithuania. (2012). Wikipedia. Retrieved November 2 from                 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Lithuania.

Lithuania Electoral System. (2012). Lithuania. Inter-Parliamentary Union Parline Database. Retrieved       November 2 from http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/2189_B.htm.

Lithuania Country Profile. (2012). Election Guide. Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening. Retrieved November 2 from http://electionguide.org/country.php?ID=125.