The Commission has created three districts of the administrative reform

Last week, the Committee of Constitutional Affairs, gave into a process two different suggestions, how to arrange local elections and also a draft act for losing parts of the town, detach them from the law, that President disallow. 

According to the bylaw, city council can not lose city parts or boroughs or change their area in the local elections year. Another draft that changes the laws of local elections is about arranging the elections and it says, that Tallinn has and will have eight electional districts, but if there are no specific parts of Tallinn the electional districts will be based on the areas and electional boarders from previous local elections. Tallinn therefore would have in elections held in October only Haabersti, Kristiine, Kesklinna, Lasnamäe, Nõmme, Mustamäe, Tallinn, North-Tallinn's constituency. In the event that a municipality or city Tallinn decide to join, it represents a separate elections district. 

I don't think that this will effect the up coming elections, because, people can now decide, who will have power in their city district. I think, that people are much more satisfied with the results, they know, that right people have power over their city district, they can be sure, that people, they have elected are aware of the situation in their city district. 

Merilin Kaalma

Ansip's Decisions

There has been a lot of talk about the dramatic decisions Andrus Ansip has made in the past few weeks. But is he doing the right things? The first thing that made the people furious with him was the fact that he decided to froze the second pension column. The second thing is that he is raising the payments for the unemployment office. But are these things just mistakes Ansip has made or really inescapable moves? In my opinion, and from interviews I have red, it seems like

 there is no other way than to take money from these extremely important sources. And as the economists have said, there are many more cutbacks to come, so there really is no other 'nicer' way to save our country from bankruptcy. There is another chance, though. But according to Ansip it is not happening any time soon, at least not when he is still a Prime Minister. It is to raise the taxes, but it is the worst thing that can happen to Estonian tax payers, as they already have hard time with their payments. But as the Estonian President said in "Maaleht", now is not the time for politicians to tightly hold on to their views. But Ansip said, he will not go so far from his views, to raise taxes, even though countries like Latvia have already done it. A thing that will also probably help to prove our situation is the Euro. But at the moment there is a big chance that we will not get it by this year. But according to Ansip, it is not his primary goal, and he will definitely not sacrifice his place for it. So, at the moment, there is nothing more to do to wait and see, if the decrease of the economy will be bigger or smaller, and what else our government will have to sacrifice. And at the moment, we should not hate Ansip for everything he does, but think, if it is really his stupidness or just inescapable circumstances.

Kristiina Viil

Electional Advertising

So, as we all know, the elections are coming, and as always, the politicians are advertising themselves. But as Estonia is not in a very good place right now, the advertisements are in some ways different this time. Reformierakond's advertisements are not so different, they promise a better future, as usual. But Keskerakond has done something quite different, and somewhat unethical. First of all, their main message is "Vahetus" - "Change" or "Exchange". To me it reminds a electional campaign made just recently by the worlds most powerful politician - Barack Obama! Their aim with this might be to seem secure and confident, they are trying to show that they too can do what the President of the United States does. The other thing that is quite unethical, but unfortunately not unusual, is the fact that they are slandering Reformierakond's and IRL's messages. Everywhere in Tallinn, there are ads on garbage bins, that the rival party's ides and messages belong to history's trash can. And also, that Reformierakond's and IRL's politics is economic crisis. But what are they trying to show with this? In my opinion, all that comes through with these advertisements, is that they do not have any printworthy and valuable ideas of their own, so they have to just blacken others. 

Kristiina Viil