Dalia Asanaviciute, the commission’s chairperson, has said that it is necessary to do homework, including the formulation of a new wording of a respective amendment to the Constitution, before the plebiscite planned in 2024.
“I think we have to do our homework, to learn from mistakes made at that time and to start preparations immediately, before the launch of a campaign, to start discussing the process and the wording [of the amendment],” she said.
“This issue has not been forgotten. The government’s program specifies that a referendum will most probably be held in 2024 in tandem with the presidential election,” she added.
In Asanaviciute’s view, the previous wording of the proposed constitutional amendment needs to be changed and made clearer.
“The proposed amendment was impossible to understand for many people, it was full of negations, such as … “shall not”, “shall not retain”. People felt somewhat lost and did not know whether to vote “yes” or “no”. We have to work out a clearer wording,” she told reporters.
Asanaviciute pointed out that, despite the failure of the dual citizenship referendum held alongside the first round of the presidential election in 2019, the majority of those who cast their votes were in favor of a proposal for the persons who had acquired the citizenship of another country to retain Lithuanian citizenship.
The Constitutional Court has held that a possibility for the Lithuanian citizens, who have acquired the citizenship of another state after the restoration of Lithuania’s independence, to hold dual citizenship can only be established by amending the country's Constitution through a referendum.
The dual citizenship referendum was held in Lithuania in May 2019 alongside the first round of the presidential election.
Voter turnout in the referendum on amending Article 12 of the Constitution and expanding dual citizenship stood at 53.16 percent but the proposed amendment was not adopted as the number of votes was insufficient. Some 72.35 percent of all voters who came to vote, or 956,564 votes, voted in favor of the proposed amendment, and 25.53 percent voted against.
However, the amendment needed at least half of all eligible voters, or 1,236,203, to vote in favor for it to be adopted.
Pursuant to existing legislation, people who emigrated during the post-independence years are not eligible for dual citizenship, apart from a few exceptions.