Republic of Central Lithuania general election, 1922

The general election in the Republic of Central Lithuania was an election to the Vilnius Sejm (parliament) of the Polish-dominated Republic of Central Lithuania on 8 January 1922. The new parliament was intended to formally legalize incorporation of Central Lithuania into Poland. Such measure was fiercely opposed by Lithuania, which claimed the territory for itself. The election was boycotted by non-Polish minorities and its results were unrecognized by either the Lithuanian government in Kaunas or the League of Nations. The elected parliament convened in February 1922 and, as expected, voted to incorporate the Republic into Poland. At the end of March 1922, Central Lithuania became Wilno Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic.

In the aftermath of the staged Żeligowski's Mutiny aimed against Lithuania, a new sham state was created by general Lucjan Żeligowski in Vilnius Region in October 1920. The new Republic of Central Lithuania depended on Poland's economic and military support and was governed by Polish military men. The territory was fiercely contested by Lithuania and Poland. In demographic terms the city of Vilnius was the least Lithuanian of Lithuanian cities, divided nearly evenly between Poles and Jews, with ethnic Lithuanians constituting a mere fraction of the total population (about 2–3% of the population, according to Russian 1897 and German 1916 censuses). The Lithuanians nonetheless believed that their historical claim to the city (former capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) had precedence and refused to recognize any Polish claims to the city and the surrounding area.

The League of Nations mediated the dispute and strongly advocated a plebiscite where the local population would vote to be incorporated either into Poland or Lithuania. However, neither Poland nor Lithuania wanted the vote. Poland had control of the territory and saw no reason to jeopardize the status quo, especially since it had already lost two plebiscites against Germany (in East Prussia and Upper Silesia). Lithuania did not want to recognize that Poland had a legitimate claim to the region and was afraid to lose the vote, especially if Polish military remained in the region. As both sides stalled, the plebiscite idea was abandoned in March 1921. Poland and Lithuania entered direct negotiations under mediation of Paul Hymans. He prepared two projects that envisioned a Polish–Lithuanian union, but both of them were rejected by Poland and Lithuania by December 1921. In October 1922, after the failure of the negotiations, the Republic of Central Lithuania scheduled elections for 8 January 1922.

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