In parallel, the Social Democratic Party will also advance a previously proposed measure to amend the Local Government Council Election Act, introducing a registration requirement for foreign nationals.

"We have been articulating the Social Democrats' position on this voting rights issue for at least a year and a half, as it has been a topic of public debate," said Lauri Läänemets, chair of the Social Democratic Party. "We still believe that changing the Constitution right before elections and removing residents' right to participate in local matters based on their citizenship is not the best solution. However, we must understand that if the Social Democrats were to stand aside from this constitutional amendment process, the right to vote would also be taken away from nearly 60,000 so-called gray passport holders, whose only home country is Estonia."

Läänemets added that during the in-depth board meeting held Tuesday, party members voiced both support and opposition, acknowledging internal differences on this issue openly. "We ultimately concluded that it is reasonable to move forward with the compromise proposal reached in the coalition council," he said.

"This means that the coalition can proceed with the constitutional amendment, provided that the voting rights of gray passport holders remain intact and that a voter registration system for third-country nationals in local elections is established," Läänemets clarified.

Last Friday, Hendrik Terras, chair of the Constitutional Affairs Committee (Eesti 200), explained that under the draft proposal, voting rights in local elections would be reserved for citizens of Estonia, the European Union, NATO countries and Switzerland, with an option to negotiate agreements with other countries to extend voting rights to their citizens residing in Estonia. This would aim to grant voting rights to Ukrainian citizens living in Estonia in the future.

However, Läänemets stated that the Social Democrats' board holds that such an international agreements provision should not be embedded in the Constitution. "No foreign parliament should decide who can vote in Estonia," he said. "And even more importantly, we cannot rule out the possibility that a government coalition could one day use a 51-vote majority to negotiate such an agreement with Russia, which would once again allow Russian citizens to vote in Estonia."

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