Events marking the Centenary of the Constituent Seimas started

Press release, 15 May 2019

Members of the Constituent Seimas pose at the Monument to the Fallen for Lithuania's Freedom in the Garden of the Vytautas the Great War Museum, Kaunas, 1922, Menas Photo Studio Lithuanian Central State Archives. P-12520

With the two events held on the 15th May 2019, we are starting the countdown to the Centenary of the Constituent Seimas and the proclamation of Lithuania as a Republic, which will be marked in exactly one year, e.g. on the 15th May 2020.

An exhibition entitled The right and duty: Election to the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania in 1920–1940, initiated by the Unit for Historical Memory of Parliamentarianism of the Office of the Seimas, was opened in the Stained Glass Gallery at 11.30 p.m. today. The exhibition was opened by Prof. Dr Arūnas Gumuliauskas, Chair of the Seimas Commission for the Cause of Freedom and the National Historical Memory.

A round table discussion on The obligation of each citizen: 100^th anniversary of the first democratic election was held in the Constitution Hall of the Seimas at 12.00. The event discussed the first democratic election of the Constituent Seimas, electoral participation of women and national minorities, and role of the Lithuanian army in that context. As the Seimas election was unimaginable without the election campaign, the visualisation of the first democratic election posters was also discussed in the debate.

Photos by Olga Posaškova, Office of the Seimas

The election to the Constituent Seimas held one hundred years ago was received with huge excitement by the public. It was a first democratic, universal, direct, equal and secret election of the Seimas, the representative of the nation. It was for the first time in history that women could compete in the parliamentary election on an equal footing with men and be elected to the Seimas. In fact, they received electoral rights in Lithuania earlier than women in some western European countries.

The right and duty of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania to express their civil will when electing their representatives was implemented by the election of the Lithuanian Seimas, the municipal election and the election of the Seimelis of Klaipėda region (which was elected by residents of the region of Klaipėda). It has to be noted that, at the time, Lithuanian citizens did not have the possibility to elect the President of the Republic of Lithuania in direct elections. He was elected by the Members of the Seimas, then by ‘the special representatives of the nation’ who were later simply named as ‘representatives of the nation’.

Please, find more information about the Constituent Seimas here.

Asta Markevičienė, Chief Specialist, Press Office, Information and Communication Department,

tel. +370 5 239 6202, e-mail: [email protected]