Granting Local Voting Rights to Non-Citizens in Estonia and Latvia: The Conundrum of Minority Representation in Two Divided Democracies
Publisher: ECMI Volume: 27 pages, pdf Description: This paper analyzes the Estonian and Latvian policy-making process with regard to non-citizens’ right to vote in local elections. While in Estonia the right of all permanent residents to vote in local elections was already enshrined in the 1992 constitution, in Latvia non-citizens are to this day completely disenfranchised, and this issue is still a source of heated political debate. Why did Estonia and Latvia take different courses with regard to their non-citizens’ political rights?