The Estonian government aims to amend the constitution within a year to prevent Russian and Belarusian citizens living in Estonia from voting in local elections, Prime Minister Kristen Michal has announced, but according to Hendrik Terras, chairman of the Constitutional Committee of the Estonian parliament, the amendment would also strip stateless people of their right to vote, on Monday, the 28th of October, reports Estonian media ERR.
Currently, Russian and Belarusian citizens in Estonia can vote in local elections if they are legal residents of Estonia, but not in national elections.
“Today, the chairman of the Constitutional Committee was instructed to set a deadline by next Monday’s meeting of the coalition council for amending the Constitution. We need to know whether we will be able to implement the amendment by the 2025 elections or whether it will only come into force in the 2029 elections […],” Michal said after Monday’s Coalition Council meeting.
“The aim is to ensure that Belarusian and Russian citizens will not be able to vote in elections next year without additional obstacles,” Michal added.
If amendments are not possible by then, Michal said that the “voter registration requirement” could serve as an “additional obstacle” to the participation of these citizens.
Prime Minister Kristen Michals stressed the importance of achieving “maximum legal clarity” to prevent Belarusian and Russian citizens from participating in municipal elections and said: “If someone wants to influence Estonian life, they have to make the effort themselves.”
Hendrik Terras, Chairman of the Constitutional Committee, said that the initial version of the draft law supported by the coalition had already been drafted. In its initial version, the draft law also abolishes voting rights for so-called grey passport holders, or stateless people in Estonia, but discussions on this aspect are still ongoing.
Terras believes that it is “realistic” to obtain the 81 votes needed to amend the Constitution.
Tanel Kiik, deputy chairman of the Social Democratic Party, opposed a general removal of voting rights of Russian and Belarusian citizens, arguing that such an approach would be unfair as it would put everyone in the same pot, “regardless of their actual position”.
Instead, Kiik has proposed a compromise to introduce a flexible filter to reduce the influence of pro-Kremlin individuals without changing the constitution.