Lawmakers propose referendum on lowering constitutional signature threshold

A mandatory referendum on lowering the number of signatures required to initiate a referendum and amend Lithuania’s Constitution could be held alongside planned municipal elections on March 7, 2027, LRT reported, citing ELTA.

More than 50 lawmakers from several parliamentary groups have registered a draft resolution proposing amendments to Articles 9 and 147 of the Constitution. The proposal would reduce the threshold from 300,000 to 200,000 signatures.

Voters would be asked whether they support amending Article 9 to state that a referendum must be held if requested by at least 200,000 citizens with voting rights.

The proposed amendment to Article 147 would state that an initiative to amend or supplement the Constitution could be submitted to the Seimas by a group comprising at least one-quarter of all members of parliament or by at least 200,000 voters.

The Constitution currently sets the threshold at 300,000 voters.

Ignas Vėgėlė, a member of the Mixed Group of Seimas Members and the initiative’s author, said the requirement should be lowered because the country’s demographic situation had changed.

“Collecting 300,000 signatures is practically and technically impossible because our demographic situation has changed. When the Constitution was adopted, the country had 3.5 million residents; now we have a couple of million. Maintaining the same number of signatures as when the Constitution was adopted would simply be unfair to citizens,” Vėgėlė told ELTA.

He said the proposed threshold of 200,000 signatures remained high. According to Vėgėlė, some lawmakers initially considered lowering it to 150,000, but the proposal did not receive sufficient support. After consultations with some Social Democrats who signed the initiative, the threshold was set at 200,000.

Vėgėlė said it was important that parliament and politicians should not fear public opinion and that citizens should be more involved in governing the country. He expects the initiative to receive support in the Seimas, noting that 53 lawmakers had signed the draft.

The resolution was signed by representatives of the Social Democrats, Nemunas Dawn, the Lithuanian Peasants and Greens Union, the Christian Families Alliance, the Democrats and the Mixed Group of Seimas Members.

In April, the Seimas began considering another initiative to hold an advisory referendum alongside the 2027 municipal council and mayoral elections. It would ask whether the Constitution should explicitly state that family legal relations arise only from a marriage between a man and a woman, motherhood and fatherhood.

In June, the Seimas rejected and returned for improvement a proposal to hold an advisory referendum on protecting cash payments. It would have asked voters whether the Constitution should guarantee a person’s right to pay in cash.

The Seimas is expected to make a final decision next week on setting March 7, 2027, as the date for the municipal council and mayoral elections.