They also saw the sign of death in the referendum ballot: why is its wording so complicated?

He even saw the symbol of death

The referendum will be held together with the presidential election on May 12. Facebook users are sharing as it approaches bulletinwhich will be put to the vote, a copy with angry comments.

“What kind of cat in the bag is this referendum preparing?” – spawned one internet user. – No specific questions, you can browse the article afterwards as you wish.”

Another Facebook user shared a copy of the bulletin with confusing explanations of what it means. According to her, under the phrase “and in other cases provided for by law” are “inhabitants of the whole world”.

The cross with which to mark the desired answer is said to mean the death of a person. The red ballot number written on the root left for the election commission is supposed to be a “burial number” and when it is scanned, the money will allegedly be deducted.

The phrase “I announce this law passed by the referendum of the citizens of the Republic of Lithuania” is also surprising – as if the decision is made in advance.

“This is not a constitutional exam”

In the form presented in the bulletin outraged and the signatory of the Act of Independence, actress, political and public figure Nijolė Oželytė.

“Only someone who wants to INTENTIONALLY destroy the referendum can write this kind of nonsense in the ballot – wording completely incomprehensible to anyone,” she wrote on her account on the social network Facebook.

The former parliamentarian asked rhetorically, “maybe the voters are considered to be complete fools who don’t need to understand anything, that they will mark anything with a cross, without even understanding who they support and who they don’t”, or “maybe they are aiming for very noble goals – that all citizens immediately attack to study the Constitution”.

“Who among you understands what is meant here and how to vote?” she continued. – From what do you need to know that you vote for or against the preservation of LT citizenship, if you acquire the citizenship of another country?

After all, this is a REFERENDUM, not an exam of the Constitution, where the question must be formulated clearly, unambiguously and understandable to EVERYONE.

Does the law oblige you to include certain legal wordings in the bulletin? It is this text that must be placed under the formulated referendum question CLEARLY and accessible to everyone.

You don’t need to be either Palmyra (probably referring to the astrologer Palmira Kelertienė – ed. post.) or Vanga to predict the results of the referendum with this formulation.”

The vote is on the text of the Constitution

Currently Constitutions Article 12 provides that the citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania is acquired at birth and on other grounds established by law.

“Except for individual cases provided for by law, no one can be a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania and another state at the same time,” the Basic Law of the country reads.

Voters are offered to abandon the quoted sentence, which currently does not allow the preservation of Lithuanian citizenship after obtaining a passport of another country.

A specific wording of the legal act is proposed for the mandatory referendum.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) confirmed what it will look like last November referendum ballot. Its layout was prepared in accordance with the resolution of the Seimas on the announcement of a mandatory referendum.

Although in public the upcoming vote is called a referendum on the preservation of Lithuanian citizenship for the sake of simplicity, formally it is being prepared for the amendment of Article 12 of the Constitution.

If the voters approve, this article would read as follows: “Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania is acquired at birth and on other grounds and procedures established by the constitutional law. The Constitutional Law also establishes the grounds and procedure for the loss of citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania.”

This is precisely what is proposed to be decided upon – this is exactly the wording recorded in the bulletin. Voters who support such an amendment to the Constitution, which would allow people to preserve the Lithuanian citizenship acquired at birth, after acquiring the citizenship of another state friendly to Lithuania, must vote on the ballot by ticking the box YES, those who disagree – NO.

If the voter ticks both boxes or none of the boxes on the ballot, the ballot will be considered invalid.

The opinions of politicians and experts differed

Portal 15 minutes the experts interviewed acknowledged that confusion does exist.

“At first glance, it is not very clear what is being changed, and especially if you don’t know how it was before – what the wording was. When you compare the texts, then you can already understand”, said Doctor of Law Skirmantas Bikelis.

In his opinion, it would be a little more understandable if the ballot marked what was deleted from the Constitution.

Ignas Kalpokas, a political scientist at Vytautas the Great University (VDU), assures that the wording itself is not very complicated, but it goes beyond the communication that was carried out.

Figuring out where to speak for and where to speak against can be a bit of a challenge.

“The message that was broadcast was about the preservation of citizenship together with the citizenships of friendly countries, and now in that option, for partially objective reasons, it has been canceled, so you can orientate yourself when those messages pass – where to speak for, where to speak against, to be a bit of a challenge,” he said.

Also read: The Speaker of the Seimas refutes criticism regarding the wording of the referendum ballot

Speaker of the Seimas Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, on her part, is convinced that the wording of the bulletin should be understandable. It is said that it was much more complicated during the previous referendum.

The wording is about a mandatory referendum

Member of the Seimas, conservative Andrius Vyšniauskas, to the internet daily “Bernardinai” claimedthat the wording in the bulletin could not be different.

“First of all, this is a mandatory referendum that changes the Constitution. According to both the Constitution and the Constitutional Law on Referendums, it is clearly established that when changing the Constitution, the people must be presented with the amendment to the Constitution, its wording, as the Constitution will look like after it is changed”, the politician explained.

Dalia Asanavičiūtė, the head of the referendum working group and chairwoman of the Commission of the Seimas and the World Lithuanian Community, also supported him.

“We can ask our citizens the question: ‘Do you support the preservation of citizenship?’

Just asking if you agree is not enough, people must vote for the final wording of Article 12 of the Constitution”, – to portal lrt.lt stated she

The same for the portal 15 minutes former CEC member Jonas Udris also said: “Referendums are mandatory and consultative. If it is consultative, you can ask a question whether you want it or not.

And a specific amendment to the legal act, a specific wording of the legal act is proposed for the mandatory referendum. After the adoption of the referendum, that wording comes into force.

A consultative referendum is advisory only. It seems to be binding, but how you implement everything is decided later.”

According to the interviewer, submitting a real question on dual citizenship to the referendum would be a slippery slope. Because it should be specified which countries’ citizenships could be combined with Lithuanian citizenships, whether only dual or multiple citizenships would be allowed.

15 minutes verdict: missing context. According to experts, such a wording in the bulletin is necessary because the referendum is mandatory – it decides on the change of a specific legal act, not the idea itself.

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