Lääneranna seeks public poll on joining Lääne County
Tuesday 29th September 2026 on 13:00 in
Estonia
Lääneranna municipality has asked Estonia’s state election service whether it can hold a public poll on joining Lääne County alongside the 2029 local elections, ERR reported. The municipality currently belongs to Pärnu County.
The proposed question is: “Would you like Lääneranna municipality to belong to Lääne County?”
State election service head Arne Koitmӓe told the municipality that current law does not rule out holding a local public poll at the same time as local elections. However, the two processes must be clearly distinguished for voters and participants, as well as for organisers and their responsibilities.
Koіtmӓe said staff involved in organising the elections must be able to carry out their statutory duties without interference. The arrangement must also avoid giving the impression that the public poll is part of voting organised by a polling station committee. The municipality should assess whether it has enough staff and space to run both processes, he said.
The election service also advised the municipality to consider whether holding the poll at the same time as the elections offers an organisational advantage that justifies the extra workload and the need to keep the processes separate. Election data, information systems and equipment cannot be used for the public poll, and its costs cannot be combined with the costs of running the local elections.
The issue reached the municipal council through an initiative launched on Rahvaalgatus.ee this spring. Its author, Kristjan Korsten, argued that the municipality’s residents identify with Lääne County and want to belong to it. He cited an informal poll in a Facebook group on February 12, 2026, which received more than 300 responses and showed about 70 per cent support for joining the county.
Of the 74 signatures collected for the initiative, only 41 were from eligible voters. With 4,311 eligible voters in the municipality as of June 1 this year, at least 44 signatures were needed to meet the one per cent threshold for submitting the initiative.
The municipal council discussed holding a public poll in August and said that, if one went ahead, it should take place alongside the local elections. Mayor Tarvi Sits said the issue of joining Lääne County remained under discussion, although there was no need to rush the poll.