Lithuania and Lithuanian News

Lithuania officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe, the largest of the three Baltic States - Latvia,Lithuania and Estonia.
In the aftermath of World War I, Lithuania's Act of Independence  was signed on Feb 16, 1918, declaring the re-establishment of a sovereign state.
Starting in 1940, Lithuania was occupied first by the Soviet Union and then by Nazi Germany.As World War II neared its end in 1944 and the Germans retreated, the Soviet Union Re-occupied Lithuania.
Before the break-up of the Soviet Union, Lithuania became the first Soviet Republic to declare Independence on March 11,1990.

Capital                     Vilnius
Currency                 Lithuanian Litas
Population               32 Million (2012 estimate)
Ethnic Groups         84% Lithuanians,7% Poles,5% Russians and 4% Others
Official Language    Lithuanian

Government

The Lithuanian Head of State  is the President, elected directly for a five-year term, serving a maximum of two consecutive terms. The post of president is largely ceremonial.The President, with the approval of the parliamentary body, the Seimas , also appoints the Prime Minister and, on the latter's nomination, the rest of the cabinet, as well as a number of other top civil servants and the judges for all courts.

Lithuania has a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition govt.

Seimas,the Lithuanian Parliament is Unicameral having 141 members elected for a 4 year term.About half of the members 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".

 2012 Lithuanian Parliamentary Election

Parliamentary elections for 141 seats in the Seimas will be held on Oct 14 and 28, 2012, alongside a referendum on the construction of a new power plant 70 of them being filled through a two round race and the other 70 will be filled through proportional representation  on the day of the first round.
There are 34 political parties participating in the elections.

Left wins Lithuania’s parliamentary polls

 

Lithuania’s Left-wing opposition won the first round of parliamentary elections, dealing a blow to the conservative government and its unpopular austerity measures.

The Labour Party won nearly 20 % of the vote while the Social Democrats came in second with 18.5 %  and  left-wing party came third with 7.4% of the votesthe election commission said late Monday Oct 15,2012 in Vilnius after votes from 99 %of the voting districts had been tallied.

Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius’ conservative Homeland Party won 15 per cent of the vote with one governing partner getting 8.5 per cent and a third coalition party falling short of the threshold for seats in Parliament.

Voter turnout was more than 50 per cent, the election commission said.

In the first round, 70 members of the 141-seat Parliament are elected by proportional representation from party lists. In the second round on October 28, 71 members are to be directly elected.

 

Lithuanian Presidential Election - May 17,2009

Candidates confirmed for election with more than 20 thousands signatures are -
1) Dalia Grybauskaite (Independent)
2) Valentinas Mazuronis(Order and Justice Party)
3) Kazimira Danute Prunskiene (Lithuanian Peasant Popukar Union Party)
4) Ceslovas Jezerskas(Independent)
5)Waldemar Tomaszewski(Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania)
6)Loreta Grauziniene (Labour Party)
7)Algirdas Butkevicius(Social Democratic Party of Lithuania)
In the election,Dalia Grybauskaite(Independent)secured 69% votes followed by Algirdas Butkevicius(Social Democratic Party of Lithuania)who got 12% votes.
Dalia Grybauskaite assumed office on July12,2009 as the country's first female president

Lithuanian Parliamentary Election - Oct 12 and 26,2008

The Seimas(Lithuanian Parliament) uses parallel voting with elections for the 70 proportional seats and the 71 constituency seats held on separate days.The results of 2008 parliament elections are -

  
Political Party                                                        Prop Seats      Const. Seats        Total
Homeland Union  - Lithuanian Christian Democrats         18                   27                      45
National Resurrection Party                                          13                    3                       16
Order and Justice Party                                                11                    4                      15
Social Democratic Party of Lithuania                             10                   15                      25
Labour Party + Youth Coalition                                       8                     2                      10
Liberal Movement                                                         5                     6                      11


The election was won by a centre-right coalition, led by Andrius Kubilius who becomes PM for a second time, of Homeland Union, National Resurrection Party  and Liberal Movement which gained a combined majority of 72 out of 141 seats thereby unseating the previous governing coalition of Social Democratic Party of Lithuania,Labour Party and New Union(Social Liberals) led by Gediminas Kirkilas.
Andrius Kubilius assumed office of PM on Dec 9,2008

Golden Antic Lost Forever in the Fire on Jan 26,2012

The fire in the Museum of Sacred Arts, which is situated in the architectural ensemble of St. Mary the Virgin Church and the Bernardine Monastery in Tytuvenai, the district of Kelme in Lithuania melted millions of euros’ worth of gold and silver monstrances of the 16th-19th centuries, decorated with diamonds and rubies.