The parliamentary election in Lithuania, October 2012

Abstract

A parliamentary election was held in Lithuania on 14 October 2012, alongside a consultative referendum on a construction of a new nuclear power plant in the country. Where required, runoffs in single mandate districts were held two weeks later, on 28 October 2012. Lithuanian left-wing parties enjoyed strong showings. The winners, the Social Democrats (Lietuvos socialdemokratų partija, LSDP), took 38 out of 141 seats in the Seimas (parliament) and formed a left-of-centre coalition government with the Labour Party (Darbo partija), Party Order and Justice (Partija Tvarka ir teisingumas, TT), and the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (Lietuvos lenkų rinkimų akcija, LLRA). The Conservatives, the winners of the 2008 general elections, lost their status as largest party yet ended up with the second largest parliamentary faction of 33 MPs. This was considered by many as a good result for the main party of a government which led the country in the years of economic downturn and hence necessary and unpopular austerity measures. However, the Liberal and Centre Union (Liberalų ir centro sąjunga), a liberal party which had been in the ruling coalition in 2008–2012, lost its parliamentary representation, and the populist National Resurrection Party (Tautos prisikėlimo partija, TPP), which had also joined the government after the 2008 election, crumbled soon after and disappeared from the political landscape. 1 Of the two new parties entering the Seimas, the most popular was the Path of Courage (Drąsos kelias), a populist and radical motley crew which won 8% of votes cast (and was thus far from repeating the 2008 success of the earlier newcomer, TPP, which debuted with 15%).