Postimees Digest, Tuesday, June 4
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Reform Party split at the top.
The ruling party's in-house election fraud scandal has taken a new turn as chairman Andrus Ansip associated head of the party's Lääne-Viru County branch, MEP Kristiina Ojuland with cases of vote fraud yesterday. The PM said that Ojuland paid the membership dues of 39 people whose identities were used to cast votes in the party's management election and that there have also been similar cases in Võru County perpetrated by the same people. Another person the party associates with fraudulent conduct is Lääne-Viru County governor Einar Vallbaum.
The Reform Party's Lääne-Viru County branch manager Taimi Samblik has supposedly admitted to falsifying votes and says that her orders came from Ojuland and Vallbaum. Kristiina Ojuland launched a counter-offensive yesterday when she gave a press conference and said that election fraud is widespread in the Reform Party and manipulations have been going on for years.
Member of the European Parliament Kristiina Ojuland also said that while she planned to run against Andrus Ansip in the election, the date of the general assembly was changed and her candidacy proved impossible. Ojuland said that violations were coordinated from the party's central office by selectively complementing the vote yield of certain candidates and named Kalev Lillo as one of the beneficiaries as no less than 94 percent of his votes were electronic.
She said that branch managers take their orders from the central office and hinted that Samblik might have been convinced or intimidated to lie. The European politician also admitted to paying the membership fees of several elderly party members who supposedly couldn't afford to do it themselves and said she then planned to ask people whether they would be willing to vote for her.
"My decision to trust the branch manager was clearly a mistake. I find that I have been used and that the chairman is trying to convict me in advance even though the investigative committee has not concluded its work," Ojuland said. More than half of the members of the party's investigative committee belong to the central management. The politician added that she plans to call a new general assembly and run for party chairman to replace Andrus Ansip as the Reform Party needs to change if it hopes to survive in Estonian politics.
Swedbank looking for pension pillars reform.
Estonia's leading commercial bank has proposed a set of changes to the pension system that would see third pillar pension funds abolished and second pillar funds reinforced in order to give people bigger pensions. The bank finds that second pillar payments should be considerably higher than the current 2 percent of gross salary in order to ensure a decent pension once a person retires.
Swedbank believes that the second pillar pension payment should be hiked to 3 percent of salary immediately and that ideally it could reach 10 percent of income. "Looking at the current structure of costs, how much people spend on food alone, we see that 10 percent is clearly unrealistic, but that it could be a target to strive for," said head of retail banking Ulla Ilison.
The bank also finds that the third pillar should be merged with the second one, that employers should participate in the pension system and that Estonia should abolish the current system of bond funds and share funds and opt for so-called life arch funds that automatically regulate their degree of risk based on how long the person has until retirement. The finance ministry said it has no comment at this time as the bank's proposals have not reached them through official channels.
In related news, all six of Estonia's pension asset managers made a profit last year as LHV Varahaldus and Nordea Pension Funds managed to close on the plus side. Managers' total income grew to 30 million euros and profit to 8.7 million.