Coalition may allow stateless persons right to vote in Estonia's local elecions

The three coalition parties have jointly decided that local election voting rights can remain in place for stateless individuals.
However, changing the law requires opposition votes, which are unlikely to materialize.
Stateless persons, sometimes called "gray passport" holders due to the color of the travel documentation issued to them, are people, overwhelmingly native speakers of Russian, who are residents in, but not citizens of, Estonia, nor are they citizens of any other country.
At present, the Reform-SDE-Eesti 200 coalition finds itself in a situation where its own votes are not sufficient to amend the law, as the motion would require not a simple majority, but the support of four-fifths of the Riigikogu.
This means opposition votes are needed – the coalition has 65 seats at the 101-seat Riigikogu.
Prime Minister Kristen Michal (Reform) told "Aktuaalne kaamera": "Right now, the coalition has agreed on the text that has been submitted to parliament."
"The goal is clear – to revoke voting rights from citizens of aggressor states. According to the text, those with gray passports would retain the right to vote in local elections," Michal went on, noting that this was a line he had consistently taken when appearing before the Riigikogu.

The chair of the Riigikogu Constitutional Affairs Committee, Hendrik Johannes Terras (Eesti 200), said that for his party, the key issue is that citizens of aggressor states cannot vote.
Terras said: "Considering the current global geopolitical situation, that is the most important aspect. Eesti 200's broader position has been that non-citizens should also not be able to vote," he went on.
The changed security situation has brought the status of Russian and Belarusian citizens ordinarily resident in Estonia who, like all non-citizen permanent residents, are eligible to vote in local, but not Riigikogu, elections.

The compromise on stateless persons was primarily made at the request of the third coalition party, the Social Democrats, who support maintaining voting rights for these individuals.
Interior Minister Lauri Läänemets (SDE) said this was: "Because if I were to ask what the security threat is, there really isn't one. In that sense, they have no loyalty to any state through citizenship."
Of the opposition parties, the Center Party, which believes that voting rights should remain for all, is highly likely to oppose the development.

Much of Center's traditional bedrock support derives from the Russian-speaking minority in Estonia, be they citizens of Estonia, of Russia or elsewhere, or stateless persons.
The other two more nationalistic opposition parties, the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) and Isamaa, both believe that only Estonian citizens should be allowed to vote in Estonia, across all elections.
MP and former Isamaa leader Helir-Valdor Seeder, who also sits on the Riigikogu Constitutional Committee, said that there is no precedent in Europe for revoking the voting rights of third-country citizens while retaining them for stateless persons.
Seeder said: "This initiative, which coalition MPs are trying to implement to keep voting rights for stateless persons, was noted by experts in today's committee meeting to be unprecedented in Europe."
Amendment proposals for the draft bill are awaited for another week, with the bill expected to reach its second reading (of three) in the Riigikogu in mid-February.
The next local elections take place in October this year.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Valner Väino
Source: 'Aktuaalne kaamera,' reporter Iida-Mai Einmaa.