Seventh Seimas Explained

Seventh Seimas of Lithuania
Term:	1996—2000

The Seventh Seimas of Lithuania was the parliament (Seimas) elected in Lithuania. Elections took place on 20 October 1996, with the second round on 10 November. The Seimas commenced its work on 25 November 1996 and served a four-year term, with the last session on 18 October 2000.

Elections

See main article: 1996 Lithuanian parliamentary election. In the elections in 1996, 70 members of the parliament were elected on proportional party lists and 71 in single member constituencies. Elections took place on 20 October 1996. In those constituencies where no candidate gained a majority of votes on 20 October, a run-off was held on 10 November.

The elections were won by the Homeland Union - Lithuanian Conservative Party, which gained 70 seats, followed by 16 seats won by Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party. Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania, which had decisively won the previous elections, ended up with only 12 seats.

Party	Abbr.	PR votes	%	Seats
Party	Abbr.	PR votes	%	PR	Constituency	Total
Homeland Union - Lithuanian Conservatives	TSLK	409,585	31.34	33	37	70
Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party	LKDP	136,259	10.43	11	5	16
Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania	LDDP	130,837	10.01	10	2	12
Centre Union of Lithuania	LCS	113,333	8.67	9	4	13
Lithuanian Social-Democrat Party	LSDP	90,756	6.94	7	5	12
Young Lithuania	JL	52,423	4.01	0	1	1
Lithuanian Women's Party	LMP	50,494	3.86	0	1	1
Lithuanian Christian Democratic Union	LKDS	42,346	3.24	0	1	1
Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania	LLRA	39,773	3.14	0	1	1
Alliance of the Lithuanian National Minorities		33,389	2.55	0	0	0
Lithuanian Nationalist Union	LTS	28,744	2.20	0	1	1
Lithuanian Democratic Party	LDP	28,744	2.20	0	2	2
Liberal Union of Lithuania	LLS	25,279	1.93	0	1	1
Lithuanian Peasants Party	LVP	22,826	1.75	0	1	1
Union of the Russians of Lithuania		22,395	1.71	0	0	0
Lithuanian Union of Political Prisoners and Deportees	LPKTS	20,580	1.57	0	1	1
Lithuanian Liberty Union		20,511	1.57	0	0	0
Lithuanian Party of Economy		16,475	1.26	0	0	0
Lithuanian Liberty League		12,562	0.96	0	0	0
Lithuanian Social Justice Union		12,234	0.94	0	0	0
Lithuanian Socialist Party		9,985	0.76	0	0	0
Republican Party		5,063	0.39	0	0	0
National Progress Party		3,922	0.30	0	0	0
Lithuanian Party Life's Logic		3,361	0.26	0	0	0
Lithuanian Peoples Party		2,622	0.26	0	0	0
Independence Party		–	–	–	0	0
Independents		0	0	0	4	4
align=left colspan=2	Invalid/blank votes	67,751	4.9	–	–	–
align=left colspan=2	Total	1,374,673	100	70	67	137
align=left colspan=2	Registered voters/turnout	2,597,530	52.9	–	–	–

Activities

Vytautas Landsbergis was elected as the Speaker of the Seventh Seimas and served throughout the term.

The Seventh Seimas laid the foundations for parliamentary control in Lithuania. By this term, institution, Special Investigation Service, designed for anticorruption activities, was established. Also amendments of Constitution, which considered Euroatlantic integration, were passed.

The Seimas and the Government also proceeded with the privatization of large public enterprises.^[1]

Composition

Parliamentary groups

During the first session of the Seimas the following parliamentary groups were registered: Homeland Union - Lithuanian Conservatives, Christian Democrats, Center, Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania, Social Democrats, Joint Group (Joint Group of the Peasants' party, the Christian Democratic Union and the National Party "Young Lithuania"), Independent Group and the Mixed Group of Members of the Seimas.

Several splits occurred during the term. In late 1998 Laima Andrikienė and Vidmantas Žiemelis were ejected from Homeland Union - Lithuanian Conservatives. They were followed by another 10 parliament members who formed the parliamentary group of Moderate Conservatives in 2000. In the same year, Modern Christian Democrats (4 members) split from the Christian Democrats and Social Democracy 2000s (4 members at the time) split from the Social Democrats. However, similarly to the Sixth Seimas, the Seventh Seimas saw few defections across ideological borders, due to the vast gulf between ruling and opposition parties.

By the end of the term of the Seimas, the following parliamentary groups were active.^[2]

Name	Abbr.	Members
Homeland Union - Lithuanian Conservatives	TSLK	48
Christian Democrats	KDF	12
Center	CF	17
Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania	LDDPF	11
Social Democrats	SDF	7
Joint Group of the Peasants' party, the Christian Democratic Union and the National Party "Young Lithuania"	JF	5
Social Democracy 2000s	S 2000	5
Modern Christian Democrats	MKD	4
Moderate Conservatives	NKF	12
Joint Group of the Democratic Party and the National People's Party	DF	3
Independent Group	NF	2
Others	MSNG	2
Vacant		4

Members

A total of 151 members were elected to the Seventh Seimas (Virgilijus Bulovas and Naglis Puteikis were elected but did not take their seats),^[3] ^[4] including 126 men and 25 women.^[5] Seimas had 137 members at the end of the term, as no new elections would take place in single-seat constituencies with less than 6 months of the term left.

Name, Surname	Electoral list	Constituency	Parliamentary group	Notes
Arvydas Akstinavičius	LSDP	Nationwide	SDF S 2000 (From 19 December 1999)
	TSLK	Tauragės	TSLK
Raimundas Alekna	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK	from 5 March 1997
Danutė Aleksiūnienė	LCS	Trakų	CF	From 23 April 1997
Ignas Aleškevičius	TSLK	Nationwide		until 4 February 1997
	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
	TSLK	Pramonės	TSLK MSNG (from 1 January 1999) DF (from 2 May 2000)
	LSDP	Žirmūnų	SDF
	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK	From 24 April 1997
Jonas Avyžius	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK	Until 7 July 1999
	TSLK	Fabijoniškių	TSLK
Alfonsas Bartkus	TSLK	Šilalės Šilutės	TSLK NKF (from 28 March 2000)
	LKDP	Nationwide	KDF
	LDDP	Nationwide	LDDPF	From 1 May 1998
	LCS	Justiniškių	CF
	LKDS	Marijampolės	JF
	LKDP	Nationwide	KDF MKDF (from 23 December 1999)
Mindaugas Briedis	TSLK	Radviliškio	TSLK
	LDDP	Nationwide		From 1 April 1998 until 1 May 1998
	LDDP	Nationwide	LDDPF
	JL	Kalniečių	JF
	LSDP	Vilkaviškio	SDF
	Independent	Naujamiesčio	CF MSNG (from 15 June 1999)
Vytautas Aleksandras Cinauskas	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
Algis Čaplikas	LCS	Nationwide	CF
Vytautas Čepas	LCS	Nationwide	CF
Sigitas Čirba	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
Regimantas Čiupaila	LCS	Nationwide	CF
	LSDP	Nationwide	SDF S 2000 (from 19 December 1999)
Sofija Daubaraitė	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
Rimantas Didžiokas	TSLK	Baltijos	TSLK
Roma Dovydėnienė	LSDP	Nationwide	SDF
	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
Vytautas Dudėnas	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
	TSLK	Akmenės	TSLK
	LDDP	Nationwide	LDDPF
Juozas Galdikas	TSLK	Lazdijų Druskininkų	TSLK
Povilas Gylys	LDDP	Nationwide	LDDPF
Vincas Girnius	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK	Until 4 February 1997
	LCS	Alytaus	CF
Petras Gražulis	LKDP	Nationwide	KDF
Arūnas Grumadas	LCS	Nationwide	CF
	TSLK	Marių	TSLK
Gražina Imbrasienė	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
Žibartas Juozas Jackūnas	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
Kęstutis Jakelis	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK	From 18 July 1999
	TSLK	Dainavos	TSLK	Until 21 November 1999
	LDDP	Nationwide	LDDPF
Sigitas Kaktys	TSLK	Mažeikių	TSLK
	Independent	Šiaulių kaimiškoji	JF
Justinas Karosas	LDDP	Nationwide	LDDPF
Algis Kašėta	LKDP	Varėnos Eišiškių	KDF MSNG (from 14 December 1999) MKDF (from 23 December 1999)
Povilas Katilius	LKDP	Nationwide	KDF
Juozapas Algirdas Katkus	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
	LDDP	Nationwide	LDDPF
Vytautas Petras Knašys	TSLK	Raseinių	TSLK
Mindaugas Končius	LCS	Nationwide	CF
Kazimieras Vytautas Kryževičius	LKDP	Nationwide	KDF
	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
Saulius Kubiliūnas	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK	From 17 November 1997
Elvyra Janina Kunevičienė	TSLK	Lazdynų	TSLK NKF (from 28 March 2000)
Rytas Kupčinskas	TSLK	Aleksoto Vilijampolės	TSLK
	TSLK	Gargždų	TSLK
Kazimieras Kuzminskas	LKDP	Panemunės	KDF
	TSLK	Kauno kaimiškoji	TSLK
Vaclovas Lapė	TSLK	Skuodo Mažeikių	TSLK
	TSLK	Nevėžio	TSLK	Until 1 July 1998
Juozas Listavičius	TSLK	Kelmės	TSLK NKF (from 28 March 2000)
Zygmunt Mackevič	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
	TSLK	Pajūrio	TSLK
Virginijus Martišauskas	Independent	Šilutės	CF
Jūratė Matekonienė	LTS and LDP	Jonavos	CF
Antanas Matulas	TSLK	Pasvalio Panevėžio	TSLK
Alvydas Medalinskas	Independent	Šeškinės	LRF MSNG (from 1 January 1999)
Nikolaj Medvedev	LSDP	Pakruojo Joniškio	SDF
Rasa Melnikienė	LCS	Nationwide	CF
Gabriel Jan Mincevič	LLRA	Širvintų Vilniaus	NF
Jonas Mocartas	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK MSNG (from 1 February 2000) NKF (from 28 March 2000)	From 4 February 1997
	LSDP	Suvalkijos	SDF
	LCS	Dzūkijos	CF
Nijolė Oželytė	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK (until 27 December 1999) NKF (from 28 March 2000)
Vytautas Pakalniškis	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK NKF (from 28 March 2000)
Feliksas Palubinskas	LKDP	Centro	KDF MKDF (from 19 January 2000)
Petras Papovas	LDDP	Zarasų-Visagino	LDDPF
	LKDP	Nationwide	KDF
Dainius Petras Paukštė	LSDP	Nationwide	S 2000	From 9 April 2000
	LTS and LDP	Kaišiadorių-Elektrėnų	MSNG DF (from 2 May 2000)
Simas Ramutis Petrikis	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
Elena Petrošienė	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
Rimantas Pleikys	TSLK	Senamiesčio	TSLK NKF (from 28 March 2000)
Artur Plokšto	LDDP	Nationwide	LDDPF
Zigmantas Pocius	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK	Until 3 November 1997
Mykolas Pronckus	LDDP	Nationwide	LDDPF
	Moterų partija	LMP	Molėtų Švenčionių	NF
	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK	From 4 February 1997 until 24 April 1997
	TSLK	Jurbarko	TSLK
Raimundas Leonas Rajeckas	TSLK	Aukštaitijos	TSLK	Until 20 August 1997
Rasa Rastauskienė	TSLK	Anykščių Kupiškio	TSLK
Arimantas Juvencijus Raškinis	LKDP	Nationwide	KDF
	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
Rūta Rutkelytė	LCS	Nationwide	CF
	TSLK	Plungės	TSLK
Joana Danguolė Sadeikienė	TSLK	Žaliakalnio	TSLK
	LSDP	Antakalnio	SDF
Algimantas Salamakinas	LDDP	Kėdainių	LDDPF
	LKDP	Karoliniškių	KDF
	TSLK	Aušros	TSLK
Jan Sienkiewicz	LLRA	Vilniaus - Šalčininkų	NF	From 23 March 1997
Romualdas Sikorskis	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK	Until 5 March 1997
	LSDP	Nationwide	SDF
Kęstutis Skrebys	TSLK	Vakarinė	TSLK NKF (from 28 March 2000)
Sigitas Slavickas	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
Rimantas Smetona	LTS and LDP	Ukmergės	JF
Stasys Stačiokas	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK	Until 18 March 1999
	LKDP	Nationwide	KDF
	LDDP	Nationwide	LDDPF	Until 31 March 1998
Antanas Napoleonas Stasiškis	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
Alfredas Henrikas Stasiulevičius	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
Vida Stasiūnaitė	LSDP	Nationwide	SDF MSNG (from 1 January 1999)	Until 8 April 2000
Ona Suncovienė	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK	From 19 March 1999
Petras Šakalinis	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
Petras Antanas Šalčius	TSLK	Rokiškio	TSLK
	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK NKF (from 28 March 2000)
Kazimieras Šavinis	LCS	Dainų	CF
Marija Šerienė	LKDP	Nationwide	KDF MKDF(from 23 December 1999)
	LDDP	Nationwide	LDDPF
Gintaras Šileikis	LCS	Nationwide	CF
	LKDP	Utenos	KDF
	LKDP	Nationwide	KDF
Virginijus Šmigelskas	LCS	Nationwide	CF	From 15 May 2000
Antanas Švitra	LPKTS	Kretingos	MSNG
Kęstutis Trapikas	LLS	Ignalinos Švenčionių	LRF CF (from 1 January 1999)
Sigitas Urbonas	TSLK	Prienų	TSLK
Ignacas Stasys Uždavinys	LKDP	Nationwide	KDF
	TSLK	Telšių	TSLK NKF (from 28 March 2000)
Alfonsas Vaišnoras	TSLK	Šilainių	TSLK MSNG (from 1 February 2000) NKF (from 28 March 2000)
Kęstutis Vaitukaitis	LCS	Nationwide	CF	Until 14 May 2000
Albinas Vaižmužis	LVP	Biržų Kupiškio	NF
Jonas Valatka	LSDP	Nationwide	SDF S 2000 (from 19 December 1999)
Virmantas Velikonis	LDDP	Aukštaitijos	LDDPF	From 21 December 1997
Arvydas Vidžiūnas	TSLK	Šakių	TSLK
Vladas Vilimas	TSLK	Kauno Kėdainių	TSLK
Birutė Teodora Visokavičienė	TSLK	Saulės	TSLK NKF (from 28 March 2000)
Vytenis Albertas Zabukas	TSLK	Danės	TSLK
	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK
Rolandas Zuoza	LSDP	Nationwide	SDF S 2000 (from 14 December 1999)
	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK MSNG (from 1 January 1999) DF (from 2 May 2000)
Algis Žvaliauskas	TSLK	Nationwide	TSLK (until 11 May 2000)

Notes and References

Web site: Šeši Seimo amžiai: nuo karalių rinkimų iki narių komunistų . lt. Six centuries of the Seimas: from royal elections to communist members. 25 October 2008. Delfi.lt. 9 December 2015.
Web site: Seimo Frakcijos. lt. Parliamentary Groups of the Seimas. Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. 9 December 2015.
Web site: Seimo narių sąrašas. lt. List of members of the Seimas. Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. 9 December 2015.
Book: Blažytė-Baužienė. Danutė. Tamošaitis. Mindaugas. Truska. Liudas. Lietuvos Seimo Istorija. XX-XXI a. pradžia. 2009. Baltos Lankos. Lithuania. 978-9955-23-322-0. lithuanian.
LIETUVOS PARLAMENTARAI 1990–2004 METAIS. lt. Lietuanian parliament members 1990-2004. Blažytė-Baužienė. Danutė. Parlamento Studijos. 2004. 2. 9 December 2015.