Even before the declaration of independence, Lithuania was referred to as a parliamentary state. On 3 June 1917, a Lithuanian assembly in Petrograd adopted a resolution declaring that the mode of governance and internal order of the independent Lithuania would be determined by the Constituent Assembly of Lithuania elected by universal and equal suffrage and by secret ballot. On 21 September 1917, the Vilnius Conference decided that the final foundations for an independent state of Lithuania would be laid by the Constituent Seimas in Vilnius. The urgency to convene the Constituent Seimas was repeatedly referred to in the Act of Independence of Lithuania of 16 February 1918.