Seimas lowers threshold for dual citizenship referendum

67 lawmakers last week voted for the amendments to the Referendum Law, three were against and 16 abstained.

Currently, all articles of Chapter 1 of the Constitution are subject to stricter amendment requirements. The adopted amendments would scrap the requirement for more than half of all citizens having the right of vote to say “yes” in a referendum to amend Article 12 of Chapter 1 of the Constitution, defining citizenship.

The changes will introduce an exception for the adoption as fewer votes in favor would be needed for changing Article 12, compared to Chapter 1’s other articles. The article would be changed if over a half of all voters who took part in a referendum voted “yes”, but no fewer than a third of all citizens having the right to vote.

Ramūnas Karbauskis, leader of the ruling Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union, confirmed that the parliament would turn to the Constitution Court on the constitutionality of the adopted amendments after the start of the Seimas’ fall session.

Currently, the constitutional article defining citizenship can be amended in a referendum with over a half of all voters in the referendum voting in favor but the number must

Currently, people who left Lithuania after it regained independence in 1990 cannot hold dual citizenship, apart from a few exceptions. That provision can only be amended by referendum.

Lithuania’s officials say that a dual citizen referendum could be held in tandem with next year’s presidential election.