Eesti in brief - 2013-04-25

The Center Party would be the firm winner of the local municipality elections in Estonia’s capital, Tallinn, this autumn, according to the current prognosis, reports Public Broadcasting citing a poll by Emor. According to the poll, commissioned by Public Broadcasting and carried out in April, 35 percent of voters in Tallinn said they would vote for the Center Party at the October municipality elections. The Social Democratic Party would get the votes of 17 percent of voters and the Reform Party would also receive 17 percent of votes. The support to the Pro Patria and Res Publica Party was just 6 percent. Emori’s research manager Aivar Voog said that the Center Party would not get sole power, i.e. a half of all mandates. The support to the Greens party was 3 percent, Conservative People’s Party and Independence Party both 1 percent. Four percent of people would vote for a local election alliance and 16 percent for an independent candidate.

The Estonian Riigikogu constitutional committee discussed on Monday a draft of amendments to the Constitution, submitted by the opposition’s Center Party, that would enable public legal initiatives and an address by the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Congress to the Riigikogu about organizing referendums, reports Delfi. The constitutional committee stated that a people’s initiative as an additional option of participation democracy is a topic that has to be discussed further, and a suitable legislative form has to be found for it. The majority of the committee didn’t support stipulating a people’s initiative in the constitution and amending the constitution correspondingly, but decided that it would be more effective to initiate a separate people’s initiative law. The committee thus decided not to support the Center Party bill but hold the first reading of it at the parliament on May 7 and reject it there.

According to the Estonian Health Board data, the vaccination rate of Estonian children has decreased and the WHO-recommended level was not achieved last year regarding most diseases, reports Public Broadcasting. The amount of refusals to vaccinate grew last year by 0.3 percent. According to the Estonian immunization plan, children are vaccinated against 10 contagious diseases: tuberculosis, B-viral hepatitis, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, poliomyelitis, mumps, rubella, measles and Haemophylius influenza type B. In 2012, the coverage of vaccination among 2-year-olds fell for all vaccines. The WHO-recommended 95 percent level was not achieved for 9 diseases. The coverage with vaccination among diphtheria, whooping cough, poliomyelitis and Haemophylius influenza type B formed 94.6 percent, B-viral hepatitis 94.7 percent and mumps, rubella and measles 93.6 percent. The board also said that the re-vaccination level was lower than wished for.