Over 70,000 people resident in Estonia no longer have the right to vote in local elections following this year’s constitutional amendment.
According to Ministry of the Interior data, the precise figure is 71,827.
This has raised questions not only about the constitutionality of the expedited amendment itself, but also how it might affect the number of municipal seats.
Head of the national election service Arne Koitmäe said the latter question only really affected Tallinn, as the only city with multiple electoral districts.
“According to the Local Government Council Election Act, mandates are distributed between electoral districts based on the number of voters. Since in these elections all municipalities except Tallinn have only one electoral district, the restriction of the voting rights of third-country nationals affects only the distribution of mandates between electoral districts in Tallinn,” Koitmäe said.
More read: ERR.EE
