President Alar Karis has continued holding consultations with the leaders of the Riigikogu parties. On Monday, Karis met EKRE leader Martin Helme and Eesti 200 Chair Kristina Kallas. One of the issues on the agenda was the right of non-citizens to vote in elections, with Estonian politicians currently unable to reach a consensus.

After his meeting with the president, EKRE Chair Martin Helme said it is still possible to amend the Estonian Constitution before October's local elections. According to Helme, the current option, whereby Estonian citizens and grey passport holders can all vote, has less chance of being passed by the Riigikogu than the option, according to which Estonian EU citizens can vote.

"The pure version, which we have supported from the beginning, actually has the support of all the other parties except the Center Party. And now, in the case of the Social Democratic Party, my understanding is that they will certainly not vote against it as a single bloc," Helme said.

However, the SDE have so far said they want to see voting rights for holders of grey passports. If the party members unanimously stick to this position, and if the members of the Center Party's Riigikogu group, who oppose the constitutional change, also remain unmoved, then the proposed constitutional change will fail.

Helme said that when it comes to the final vote, EKRE would support an amendment that allows only Estonian citizens the right to vote.

Eesti 200 leader Kristina Kallas, whose party colleague Hendrik Terras put forward an amendment according to which only Estonian citizens would be eligible to vote, also spoke to the president about amending the Constitution.

"As the chair of the Riigikogu's Constitutional Committee, he has now been negotiating and debating this for months and says this amendment is the one most likely to get the most votes at the moment," Kallas said.

The deadline for putting forwarded further amendments is March 11. An amendment needs the support of 21 signatories in order to be discussed by the committee. The Terras amendment currently has 18 signatures. Isamaa says it supports the content of the amendment but has not yet decided whether to give its official support to this particular initiative.

"Mr. Terras' proposal is of course a step towards in the right direction, but it is important to reach a solution that would also delivers sufficient numbers in the final vote. Whether we support Mr. Terras' proposal, or whether we put forward our own proposal, is a tactical issue. We will discuss it at the beginning of the next working week," said Isamaa leader Urmas Reinsalu.

Reinsalu has discussed constitutional change with the president before, as has SDE leader Lauri Läänemets. The leaders of the Center Party and Reform Party have also previously had consultations with President Karis.

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