The Seimas of Lithuania on Tuesday voted down the ruling block’s initiatives aimed at liberalizing the existing rules on the sale of alcohol, regarding the age census and the time of sale.

It means that the start of the sale of alcohol will not be moved from 10 a.m. to noon. Moreover, people under the age of 18 will not be able to buy strong alcoholic beverages.

63 lawmakers voted in favor of rejecting the proposed amendments, 51 were against. The latter wanted the amendments to be returned to the Committee on Economics for further consideration, and five lawmakers proposed returning the amendments to the initiators for further improvement.

The Seimas, however, leaned towards lifting certain restrictions for alcohol advertising as of May 1 and also relaxing the rules for the sale of alcohol during mass events.

Some 24 percent of deaths in Lithuania are alcohol-linked.

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