Lithuania's Parliamentary Election Process
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- Опубліковано 14 гру 2024
- Lithuanian parliament goes by the name Seimas. Seimas is currently comprised of 141 members, who are elected by the voters of the country. 71 members of Seimas are elected under one system, and the other 70 are elected through another system...
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UPDATE: A slight change to the electoral process! Info from Džiugas (who appears in this video)
In 2022, 5 separate pieces of election legislation were consolidated into one singular "Code of elections". At the time, it was communicated to the public that no actual changes regarding the electoral process would be made. However, a change HAD been made and it was missed by most of Lithuanian society - even members of the government.
Previously:
A candidate in a single-member constituency must win more than 50% of all votes cast to be elected in the first round.
Now:
A candidate is elected in round one if they get the most votes, IF the number of votes received is greater than 1/5 of ALL registered voters in that constituency.
How does that work in practice? Well, if the turnout in a constituency is 50%, a candidate needs to get more than 40% of the votes to win. This change presumes that, if the turnout is 50% and a candidate got more than 40% in the first round, a victory in the second round is more or less guaranteed. If the turnout is smaller, the bar rises, and if the turnout is greater, the bar shrinks.
In practice, Seimas election turnout has always hovered around the 50% range. Because there's typically around 10 candidates, there is enough of a vote split that if a candidate receives 40% of the votes in the first round, a victory in the second round is a guarantee, based on the presumption that he/she will have been the backup choice for enough voters to secure a second-round victory.
If we were to apply the new electoral process to the 2020 election results, the make-up of the parliament stays identical. This was the argument used to justify it, saying that this is a cost-saving measure. Obviously, the opposition, who didn't clock it when this change got passed, is pissed off.
www.lrt.lt/naujienos/lietuvoje/2/2372639/pries-dvejus-metus-pritarusi-rinkimu-kodekso-pokyciams-opozicija-atsipeikejo
Some political science professors were asked what they thought and their simplified take was the following:
"Due to the specific nature of Lithuania's politics - the vast multi-party system that splits the vote many ways, and a predictable turnout, this change shouldn't impact the election - i.e. the composition of the elected parliament should stay identical, whether we apply the old system or the new one. Obviously, we first have to observe it in action to see how it works".
That's how we vote! Thanks for explaining.
Ah yes, learning my countries electoral system from a Canadian channel. Thanks for the great video.
In Alaska we recently switched to ranked choice voting which essentially has upto 4 rounds held on one day.
Yes, just like Maine did a couple of years ago. I think ranked choice voting is worth the extra effort.
I like our electoral system. I feel like its as fair as democracy can be.
Apparently i was ignorant and thought our system was flawed in many ways. This makes me apreciate what we have even more. Cheers to that.
@@lithuanian_guyAnd you are not alone.
@@lithuanian_guyI’m curious, what did you think was flawed about it?
@@MidnightSun009 ah the usual suspects - like does my vote even matter, is our voting somehow weird or broken compared to "normal" countries. Now i know, that system is actually quite perfect and modern. Enough for me to trust in it. That doesnt mean im satisfied with the options on the ballot. But thats a different story isnt it. Also "kokia tauta - tokie ir valdžioj" too. Hope that satisfies your curiosity.
@@lithuanian_guy there is no such thing as "normal" countries. and just because other countries are like that doesn't mean it's good. should have figure it out considering the mess that is happening in the world
very informative video! i think our voting system is hard for Lithuanians first time voters. fun fact first time i voted i did not know you had to fill the boxes below with preferred party members :D
As a citizen of Latvia, I've sayd it once and I will say it again. Lituanias electoral sistem is way more cool!
What a coincidence! I just a few hours ago tried to look into parliamentary elections, and I was so confused about how they actually work.
I quite like the Lithuanian system. It's a hybrid of constituencies and party list which puts some safeguards into the system. They're not perfect and some people want to change it, but I think it's the best system that we can have in this day and age.
The main problem of Lithuanian politics is not lack of representation but rather lack of competent people willing to go into politics. Reason being low pay. Lithuanian politicians are not paid alot and as a result very few talented and skillful people go into politics. Why would anyone get 3000 Euros as a politician if they can get 15000 in the private sector, right? To most people it's a deal breaker and therefore all political parties struggle to produce people who would be competent enough to be a government minister. The current government cabinet is a pretty good illustration of that where most ministers are basically some random shmo without credentials to be in the position that they are in.
I always giggle when journalists from abroad say left or right parties :D. For example, Laisvės party by US standards are left (DEMOCRATS) they are in coalition with Tėvynės sąjunga-Lietuvos krikščionys demokratai right (republicans) party. And still, because voter turnout to EU parliament was low we elected the biggest homophobe in our country to the EU Parlament.
Current ruling coalition and especially TS-LKD are democrats by US standarts, often called "right wingers" in Lithuania.
Everyone else by US standarts are republicans, often refered to as "left wingers", they are called that not because they are left-wing, but because they oppose TS-LKD (TS-LKD is the biggest party shown in this video).
Calling TS-LKD right wing and those who oppose them left wing is a thing due to how Lithuanian politics worked. After leaving soviets TS-LKD (known as TS back then) was biggest right wing party, and their opposition was former communists, who often presented themselves as left wing. And so it came to be, those who lean towards TS-LDK are called right wing, those who don't, are called left wing, even if they're more right wing than TS-LKD.
Our political spectrum sides are mixed up. Our left is actually US right wing, and vice versa.
Certified Elections Nerd 😄
I got permission to say that ☺️
🎉❤
Couldn't the government save even more money while maintaining good proportional representation by switching to some sort of multiple-choice voting system? For example, if they switched to ranked choice voting, then if a candidate didn't receive 50% of the vote, the lowest candidate's votes could be distributed based on the voters' second choices, repeating this process until one candidate has at least 50%. That would eliminate the need for a second-round runoff election.
hi i am late to the party and am a estonian so hear a latvian joke
Läbi nagu läti raha.
Translation pointless like latvin money
ACTUALLY...
My colleague in Germany really struggled to explain their eloection system but I believe it's the best in Europe because it involves both local and popular vote at the same time. The trick they have is variable number of parliament members.