Lithuania could consider lowering the referendum threshold after the second failed attempt to expand the list of those entitled to dual citizenship, President Gitanas Nausėda said on Monday.
Lithuania’s second referendum to allow dual citizenship failed on Sunday.
Figures from the Central Electoral Commission show that 1,413,288 people, or 58.96 percent of all voters, participated in the referendum.
Of them, 1,026,408, or 74.13 percent, voted “yes”, but it was not enough to amend Article 12 of the constitution which requires more than 50 percent of all eligible voters.
A total of 2,385,234 voters were eligible to vote in Sunday’s referendum, meaning that at least 1,192,617 “yes” votes were needed.
Nausėda said that that the organisers made insufficient effort to explain the reasons for and convince voters to support the proposed constitutional amendment. However, lowering the referendum threshold by amending the law could be considered, according to the president.
“If we really give up, throw up our hands, and say we cannot solve the problem, we could go down this path (of changing the Law on Referendum), but this raises many other questions,” he said in an interview with LRT TV.
The initiators of Sunday’s referendum proposed to amend Article 12 of the Constitution by removing the clause preventing Lithuanian citizens from acquiring a second citizenship.
Voters were asked whether they approved the following wording of the article: “Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania shall be acquired by birth or on other grounds established by law. The procedure for the acquisition and loss of citizenship shall be established by law”.
In response to the outcome, MP Dalia Asanavičiūtė, the initiator of the referendum, suggested amending the Law on Citizenship to allow those who have acquired citizenship of NATO member states or the alliance’s partners Austria, Ireland, and Malta to keep their Lithuanian passports.
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