No grounds to dismiss MPs because of double citizenship, says Nestor
The Conservative People's Party (EKRE) demanded on Monday that MPs Sooäär and Randpere leave parliament because they are double citizens. President of the Riigikogu Eiki Nestor disagrees.
EKRE's parliamentary group wants the board of the Riigikogu to ask the Supreme Court to terminate the powers of Imre Sooäär (Reform) and Valdo Randpere (Reform) before the end of their term in office “because they did not meet the requirements set to candidate members of the Riigikogu.”
As President of the Riigikogu, Eiki Nestor (SDE) heads the parliament’s board, and it is his office that EKRE addressed with its complaint. “I have no grounds whatsoever to suspect that the National Electoral Committee made a mistake when it registered these two as candidates in the parliamentary election,” Nestor told BNS on Monday.
Nestor said that the law in question had been written and passed two decades ago with the common understanding that it would not have retroactive effect. “In other words, if someone possessed another country's citizenship in addition to Estonian citizenship prior to it, that's the way it is,” he explained.
EKRE’s parliamentary group also asked the board to check whether other members of parliament besides Sooäär and Randpere unlawfully hold dual citizenship.
The chairman of the group, Henn Põlluaas, said that a citizen of Estonia was by law prohibited from holding another country's citizenship at the same time, and claimed that Sooäär and Randpere had publicly confirmed that they held dual citizenship.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn
Source: BNS