Jonas STAUGAITIS, Chairman of the Third Seimas
(7 June 1926 - 17 December 1926)

Aleksandras STULGINSKIS, Chairman of the Third Seimas
(19 December 1926 - 12 April 1927)

Elections to the Third Seimas took place on May 8-10, 1926. The right-wing parties which used to dominate in the previous Seimas were now replaced by the moderate leftists - National Peasants and Social Democrats. The National Peasants and the Social Democrats formed a minority coalition government with the frequent support of the national minorities, the Farmers' Party, and at first the Nationalists, thus occasionally wielding an absolute majority. Kazys Grinius was elected President of the Republic, and Mykolas Sleževičius formed the new Cabinet of Ministers.

One of the first things that the Third Seimas made was to revoke the Special Statutes of the State protection. The Non-aggression Treaty was signed with the Soviet Union in which Lithuania's rights to Vilnius that was under Polish occupation at that time were recognised. The new government abolished martial law and censorship of the press and even allowed freedom of activity to the Communists who were struggling with the Social Democrats for control of trade unions.  

The development of democratic traditions in the Lithuanian State was terminated by the coup d'état of December 17, 1926. The organisers of the coup elected Antanas Smetona, leader of the Nationalists, as the new President, and expressed a vote of confidence in the new government formed out of Nationalists, Christian Democrats and Farmers' Party members. However, this situation did not last long: after a vote of non-confidence, a few months later, the President dissolved the Third Seimas on April 12, 1927, without scheduling new elections as the Constitution of 1922 demanded.