In Estonia, the rights of municipal elections to Russian and Belarusian citizens; Non -citizens will only be able to vote this year / day

92 Members voted for the amendments, seven were against and no Member stopped.

All seven deputies who voted against the opposition center party that defends the interests of Russian -speaking.

In order for the constitutional amendments to be adopted, it had to obtain at least two -thirds of the votes of MPs, ie at least 68 votes. There are a total of 101 members of the Riga.

« Decisions in our local lives will not be made by citizens of aggressor countries, but we will decide ourselves, » Estonian Prime Minister Kristens Mikhals recorded after adopting the amendments on the platform X.

So far, municipal election rights in addition to Estonian citizens and non -citizens and other citizens of the European Union (EU) Member States also had third -country nationals, who have a permanent residence permit in Estonia and whose permanent residence is in the municipality.

The next Estonian municipal elections will take place on October 19. Non -citizens will still be able to participate, but then they will be denied voting in the local elections and the municipalities will be able to vote only in Estonia and the permanently living citizens of EU countries.

The authors of the constitutional amendments have indicated that until the next municipal elections, non -citizens who want to vote will have enough time to obtain citizenship.

There are less than 60,000 non -citizens in Estonia, and about 80,000 Russian citizens live permanently.

In order for amendments to the Constitution to take effect, they must still be signed by President Alar Karis.