so if the the registered Estonians in Estonia can't bring themselves to vote in their "own" elections, ex-pats and other citizens living abroad are expected to bolster the voting numbers?

I wonder if all the Canadian citizens in India, Pakistan, USA, Italy, Somali will do the same in our upcoming election as the eligible Canadian voters also tend to be very apathetic.

Leivat is right in being p....d off. Don't use the "I can't vote, 'cause I don't live there" mantra in the Estonian case. Esto NEEDS everyone's vote, at least to show that people participate in the electoral process, something that international observers pay close attention to. Eesti has been weak in voter participation and this has caught the mindful eye of those who give here a 'democracy index' rating, an evaluation that carries weight in international dealings.

While it can be argued that people shouldn't vote who don't fulfill any obligations for a country, like serving on juries and paying, it can also be argued that a democratically elected parliament has felt it necessary to extend the right and responsibility to vote to expatriot citizens, and therefore this is a duty that one is obliged to fulfill. Yes, we abroad, have very little that is demanded of us as citizens. But every four years we could make a slight effort to find out what people are concefrned about in Estonia and certainly exercise our electoral right (and duty) accordingly. By the way, the last time I looked, some 115 democratic countries in the world give this right to expatriots and expect them to excerise it.