Editing Elections in Lithuania (section)

=== Process and eligibility ===

[[File:Seimas barricades 2.jpg|thumb|left|[[Seimas Palace]] in Vilnius]]The '''[[Seimas|parliament]]''' (''Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas'') has 141 members, elected to a four-year term, with 71 members elected in single-seat [[constituency|constituencies]] and 70 members elected by [[proportional representation]].<ref name="SeimasLaw">{{cite web |url=http://www3.lrs.lt/pls/inter3/dokpaieska.showdoc_l?p_id=483680 |title=Law on Elections to the Seimas |date= 14 May 2015 |publisher=Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania |access-date=31 July 2015}}</ref> Lithuania exhibits a fragmented multi-party system,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tlu.ee/stss/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/stss_nov_2011_saarts.pdf |title=Comparative Party System Analysis in Central and Eastern Europe: the Case of the Baltic States |last1=Saarts |first1=Tõnis |publisher=Studies of Transition States and Societies |access-date=31 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161019212154/http://www.tlu.ee/stss/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/stss_nov_2011_saarts.pdf |archive-date=19 October 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref> with a number of small parties in which coalition governments are common. Ordinary elections to the Seimas take place on the second Sunday of October.

To be eligible for election, candidates must be at least 21 years old on the election day, not under allegiance to a foreign state and permanently reside in Lithuania. Persons serving or due to serve a sentence imposed by the court 65 days before the election are not eligible. Also, judges, citizens performing military service, and servicemen of professional military service and officials of statutory institutions and establishments may not stand for election.<ref name="SeimasLaw" />

In addition, the Lithuanian law stipulates that a person who has been removed from office through impeachment may not be elected for four years after their removal,<ref name="SeimasLaw" /> although the limit of four years has been suspended by the Lithuanian constitutional court, which stated that the Lithuanian constitution does not allow for persons impeached for a breach of constitution or their oath of office to stand in elections indefinitely. This provision of the constitution had been ruled to be in breach of the [[European Convention on Human Rights]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.delfi.lt/news/daily/lithuania/konstitucinis-teismas-r-paksui-vilties-nesuteike.d?id=64323400 |language=lt |title=Konstitucinis Teismas R. Paksui vilties nesuteikė |trans-title=The constitutional court did not give R. Paksas hope |date=20 March 2014 |website=Delfi.lt |access-date=31 July 2015}}</ref>

Parliament members in the 71 single-seat constituencies are elected in a majority vote if the voter turnout in the constituency is at least 40%. If the voter turnout is less than 40%, the candidate with the most votes (and at least 20% of the votes) is declared the winner. If there are more than two candidates and no candidate wins in the first round, a second round of voting is held within 15 days. The two leading candidates from the first round are eligible for the second round of voting. The candidate that gets more votes in the second round is declared the winner, regardless of voter turnout.<ref name="SeimasLaw" />

The remaining 70 seats are allocated to the participating political parties proportionally to the share of vote received, using the [[largest remainder method]]. Parties receiving less than 5% of the vote and joint multi-party electoral lists receiving less than 7% of the vote are not eligible to receive any seats, unless the remaining eligible parties received less than 60% of the vote.<ref name="SeimasLaw" />

Candidates take the seats allocated to their parties based on the preference lists submitted before the election. The preference lists are adjusted by preference votes given by the voters.