So far 10,833 Lithuanian citizens have expressed their wish to vote at Lithuania's 51 foreign representations and consulates. The number is expected to rise in the run-up to October's elections.
During the last vote, 10,300 foreign-based citizens cast their ballot, despite the fact that there were 16,200 registered voters.
The majority of people have registered to vote in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Over 2,300 Lithuanians have already expressed their wish to vote at the Lithuanian Embassy in London. Four years ago, over 1,886 people out of over 3,500 registered voters cast their votes in the UK.
1,167 Lithuanian citizens have registered to vote in Ireland. This was the number of people who voted in the last Seimas elections. There were over 3,700 registered voters then.
Mindaugas Skačkauskas of the Lithuanian Central Electoral Commission says only Lithuanian citizens who have registered to vote in the Seimas elections at the embassies have been included into the voters' lists, therefore, the numbers of voters are lower compared to the last general elections.
He hopes that more Lithuanian citizens will register to vote in the upcoming three weeks.
Zenonas Vaigauskas, chairman of the Central Electoral Commission, says the number of Lithuanian citizens living abroad has increased significantly but only a fraction of them register to vote.
"Not all of them want to go to embassies, not all of them want to provide their addresses for voting documents to be sent," he said.
Vaigauskas hopes the number of Lithuanian voters abroad will reach at least 20,000.
