Three out of four Lithuanians are in favor of retaining Lithuanian citizenship when people acquire the citizenship of another friendly country, according to a new survey by Spinter for the Office of the Government, carried out in December.
It shows that 76 percent of the country’s population believes it is important to retain Lithuanian citizenship obtained by birth when people acquire the citizenship of another country friendly, the government press service said on Tuesday.
“Respondents who intend to vote positively in the referendum mostly believe it is important to create conditions for people to retain their Lithuanian citizenship when they become citizens of other countries friendly to Lithuania for family, migration or other reasons, without compromising national security interests,” Ignas Zokas, the head of Spinter, was quoted as saying in a statement.
The survey also shows a 4 percentage point increase in the number of people intending to take part in the May 12 referendum on the legalization of dual citizenship, the government press service said.
34 percent said they would definitely participate in the referendum, while 26 percent said they would rather participate. 15percent do not plan to participate, 10 percent say they are more likely not to participate, and 5 percent say they will certainly not participate. A further 25 percent are still undecided on their participation.
The survey f 1,012 adult Lithuanian was conducted on December 15-23.
In the May 12 referendum, voters will be asked to vote on the following provision of the Constitution: “Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania shall be acquired by birth and on other grounds in accordance with the procedure established by the constitutional law. The constitutional law shall also determine the grounds and procedure for the loss of citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania.”
This would remove the current ban on multiple citizenship from the Constitution.
Passing the motion requires a “yes” vote from more than 50 percent of all eligible voters.
Lithuania held a referendum on expanding possibilities for multiple citizenship in 2019, along with the presidential election, but fell short of votes to adopt the proposed amendment.
The referendum had a turnout of over 53 percent and was considered valid. Almost 597,000 people, or 38.46 percent of the entire electorate, voted in favor of the constitutional amendment, below the necessary minimum of just over 1.24 million “yes” votes for the motion to pass.
Currently, people who left Lithuania after March 11, 1990 cannot hold dual citizenship, apart from a few exceptions.
The Constitutional Court has ruled that this provision can only be changed via a referendum.
Source: BNS
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