Lawmakers seek to cut referendum signature threshold to 200,000

A group of 53 Lithuanian lawmakers has proposed changing the Constitution to reduce the number of citizens’ signatures required to call a referendum from 300,000 to 200,000, LRT reported.

Ignas Vėgėlė, a member of the mixed parliamentary group, told BNS that the lawmakers had registered a resolution proposing a referendum on the constitutional change to be held on March 7, during municipal elections.

“We registered an initiative to invite and call a referendum during the municipal elections, on March 7, on lowering the referendum threshold — from 300,000 citizens’ signatures to 200,000,” Vėgėlė said.

He said the proposal had received support from lawmakers representing the ruling Lithuanian Social Democratic Party, the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union and the Union of Christian Families, as well as opposition groups including Nemunas Dawn and the Liberal Movement.

Vėgėlė previously sought to halve the threshold to 150,000 signatures, but failed to secure sufficient support. He said the 200,000-signature proposal was intended to attract broader backing in parliament.

According to Vėgėlė, the existing threshold has become unrealistic because Lithuania’s population has declined. He said that when the Constitution was adopted, the country had around 3.5 million residents, compared with approximately 2.7 million to 2.8 million now.

“Collecting 300,000 signatures has become practically impossible. This means the provision is merely a constitutional declaration, rather than a real citizen’s right to participate in direct democracy,” he told BNS.

He acknowledged that collecting 200,000 signatures would also be very difficult, but said it would create a realistic possibility of initiating a referendum. He added that the figure would represent more than 10 percent of eligible voters and would be in line with what he described as a broader European trend.

Article 9 of Lithuania’s Constitution states that a referendum must be called if requested by at least 300,000 citizens with voting rights. The signatures must be collected within six months.

Parliament may also call a referendum in cases set out by law. A proposal to hold one can be submitted with the signatures of 36 lawmakers and is approved by a simple majority.

Previous initiatives to lower the threshold have failed to secure the necessary support. The most recent referendum initiated by citizens was held in 2014. An initiative group collected 300,000 signatures for a referendum on banning the sale of land to foreign nationals and legal entities, while also proposing to lower the signature threshold to 100,000.

That referendum did not take place because only 15 percent of voters participated.