VILNIUS, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Lithuanian parliament decided on Thursday to hold a referendum on dual citizenship next May, during the presidential elections.
The referendum will be held for two days, on May 12 and May 26 of next year, alongside two rounds of presidential elections and elections to the European Parliament that take place on May 26.
The Lithuanian legislators hope that holding the referendum alongside the other elections would ensure the high participation rate needed to make the constitutional amendment.
"The initiators offer to hold the referendum for two days taking into account that a particularly high number of votes is needed to make amendments in the Constitution, more than half of the citizens having a voting right," Parliament said in a statement.
Currently, the Lithuanian Constitution stipulates that Lithuanian citizenship is acquired by birth or on other grounds established by law, and no one may be a citizen of Lithuania and another state at the same time, except in individual cases provided for by the law.
Lithuania's legislators have been long pressured by Lithuanian society from abroad to ensure dual citizenship amid growing emigration.
Since the peak of 3.7 million people in 1992, Lithuania's population has shrunk to 2.85 million in 2017, according to the data provided by the country's Parliament.
