According to Ministry of the Interior data, the precise figure is 71,827.

This has raised questions not only about the constitutionality of the expedited amendment itself, but also how it might affect the number of municipal seats.

Head of the national election service Arne Koitmäe said the latter question only really affected Tallinn, as the only city with multiple electoral districts.

"According to the Local Government Council Election Act, mandates are distributed between electoral districts based on the number of voters. Since in these elections all municipalities except Tallinn have only one electoral district, the restriction of the voting rights of third-country nationals affects only the distribution of mandates between electoral districts in Tallinn," Koitmäe said.

This has not led to a net loss in the number of seats in Tallinn, 79, but there has been some redistribution between districts.

"In the Lasnamäe district electoral district, the number of mandates will fall by two, while in the Kesklinn and Nõmme districts it will rise by one. The number of mandates, that is, members of the Tallinn City Council, was left the same for the next composition – i.e. 79," Koitmäe added.

Lasnamäe is both the most populous district of Tallinn and also the district with the largest number of people affected by the constitutional amendment.

Nationwide, before the constitutional amendment there were a total of 1,073,323 eligible voters in Estonia. This has fallen to 1,001,496, also taking into account other population changes unrelated to the amendment.

As the most populous county in Estonia, Harju County, population nearly 640,000 and including Tallinn, is home to the largest number of people who have lost the vote ahead of October's elections. This stands at 35,540 out of the total 71,827 people affected.

Of this, the bulk of people are in Tallinn, at 29,443 former voters.

The absolute number of eligible voters in Tallinn, population around 457,000, has fallen from 352,658 prior to the constitutional amendment, to 323,215 at present.

As noted, the Lasnamäe district saw the biggest fall in eligible voters, at 13,687 people. Next is the Põhja-Tallinn district, where there are 4,348 fewer eligible voters compared with before the amendment.

Proportionately, Ida-Viru County had the largest number of people who lost the vote, at 29,982, out of a county with a population of a little over 132,000. At the previous local elections, 105,051 residents in Ida-Viru County could vote, compared with 75,069 people who can now do so, a fall of a third.

From this total, the city of Narva lost the most eligible voters, from 42,743 to 27,240, meaning 15,503 people, or 36 percent, lost the right to vote. Narva's population is around 55,500.

The above figures refer to eligible voters and not voter turnout.

There are 79 municipalities nationwide, categorized either as city or rural municipalities.

All permanent residents of Estonia were previously permitted to vote in local elections, making these the elections with the widest franchise in Estonia.
However, the constitutional amendment which passed a Riigikogu vote in late March this year stripped this right from third-country nationals, meaning non-EU citizens.

While the measure was aimed at curbing the potential influence in elections which Russian and Belarusian citizens residing in Estonia could have by voting, it also removed the right to vote from citizens of NATO allied nations such as the U.S. and U.K.

In the case of the U.K., Brexit is behind the disenfranchisement of British citizens resident in Estonia across two elections. Whereas U.K. citizens could previously vote in both the EU elections and the local elections, now they can vote in neither.

All citizens of the remaining 26 EU nations ordinarily resident in Estonia are eligible to vote in the local elections.

So-called gray passport holders, meaning those who have no citizenship but are resident in Estonia, in practice mainly those whose first language is Russian, have been granted an exemption to vote this time, and are scheduled to lose their vote ahead of the following local elections in 2029. The main rationale for this exemption was to encourage gray passport holders to apply for Estonian citizenship between now and 2029.

Riigikogu elections are restricted to voters who are Estonian citizens.
Polling day for the local elections is Sunday, October 19, preceded by several days' advance voting.

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