Lithuanian parliamentary election, 2000
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All 141 seats to the Seimas 71 seats were needed for a majority |
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Andrius Kubilius
Homeland Union
Parliamentary elections were held in Lithuania on 8 October 2000. All 141 seats in the Seimas were up for election, 71 of them in single-seat constituencies based on first-past-the-post voting; the remaining 70, in a nationwide constituency based on proportional representation. Altogether, around 700 candidates competed in the single-seat constituencies, while over 1,100 candidates were included in the electoral lists for the nationwide constituency.
The Social Democratic coalition of former President Algirdas Brazauskas got the largest share of the popular vote in the nationwide constituency (31 per cent) and the most seats in the Seimas (51 seats for all parties in the coalition), short of the 71 seats needed for the majority. New Union (Social Liberals), led by Artūras Paulauskas, came in second in the nationwide constituency (19.64 per cent) and gained 29 seats in the parliament. The centre-right Liberal Union, led by the Mayor of Vilnius and former Prime Minister Rolandas Paksas, ended up as the largest single party in the parliament, with 34 seats and 17.25 per cent of the vote in the nationwide constituency.
Homeland Union, which had led the government for the previous four years, performed poorly in the elections, with 8.62 per cent of the vote and 8 seats, down from more than 30% of the vote and 70 seats in the previous elections. Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius and many other prominent ministers lost the elections in their single-seat constituencies. In the electoral campaign dominated by economic issues, the party was sanctioned for the economic recession and high unemployment, as well as its austerity policy. The Social Democratic coalition, on the other hand, had promised the end to austerity, including lower taxes and higher social spending.
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Wikipedia