Over 113,000 votes cast at Estonia's local elections so far
As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, 113,217 votes had been cast across Estonia's 79 local municipalities.
Polling day at the local elections is this coming Sunday, and advance voting started Monday morning.
The breakdown was 34,210 votes cast at polling booths and 79,007 online, according to State Electoral Office of Estonia data.
The most active voter turnout so far has been on Hiiumaa, where 14.1 percent of eligible voters have cast their vote. Tallinn is next, with a 13.3 percent participation, followed by the City of Tartu as well as Lääne County, each with 12.3 percent of the vote cast.
Nationwide, 11.3 percent of eligible voters had participated in the elections as of Wednesday evening.
According to electoral office data at the time of writing, that figure had already risen to 12.4 percent, with 123,953 votes cast (34,215 on paper and 89,738 e-votes).
The franchise this time is smaller than at previous local elections after a constitutional amendment in spring stripped the right to vote from third country (non-EU) citizens.
EU citizens resident in Estonia and so-called gray passport holders, meaning those with no citizenship, are eligible to vote, along with Estonian citizens aged 16 and over.
There are a total of 1,003,664 eligible voters.
The e-vote is open 24-hours per day until 8 p.m. on Saturday, October 18, the day before polling day.
Those wanting to vote this way must download the voting app here and have an internet-connected computer and an ID card and card reader, or mobile ID, or SMART ID, plus the related PIN numbers, for authentication. An e-vote can be recast as many times as a voter wishes until the e-vote closes on Saturday evening. A paper vote, either during the advance period or on polling day, overrides an e-vote and cannot be recast.
Advance voting at selected polling booths is open from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. in all municipalities, through to Thursday inclusive. Voters can only vote in their electoral district of residence.
From Friday, October 17 through to Sunday, October 19 inclusive, all 356 polling stations across Estonia will be open; on polling day, Sunday, polling stations are open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., when polls close.
More information on voting is here.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Marko Tooming
