Postimees Digest, Wednesday, June 5
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Reform Party court of honor hears statements.
The court of honor of the ruling Reform Party heard statements from both sides of its recent vote-rigging scandal yesterday and is set to present its conclusions to the management this afternoon. Members of the court first heard statements from Lääne-Viru branch manager Taimi Samblik who has admitted to perpetrating the fraud but says she was simply following orders given to her by MEP Kristiina Ojuland and county governor Einar Vallbaum. Samblik also said that Ojuland promised her a paid vacation to Tenerife if she helps her rig the votes. County branch chairman Ojuland produced a list of around ten people who she claims have participated in in-house elections without the right to do so and categorically denied having given Samblik orders to break the law and steal people's identities.
The European politician said that she plans to sue Taimi Samblik in order to clear her name irrespective of the court's decision. Vallbaum also denied accusations and said that should the court of honor accuse him of ordering Samblik to manipulate votes, he too will turn to the court. Head of the party's investigative committee Väino Linde has said that evidence and statements point to Taimi Samblik, Kristiina Ojuland and Einar Vellbaum as concerns cases of vote-rigging in the party's 2011 and 2013 management elections. The scandal began when weekly Eesti Ekspress published a story of how several Lääne-Viru County pensioners discovered only in hindsight that their names had been used to vote electronically in the party's in-house election. Einar Vallbaum says in a related interview that he had no knowledge of how Samblik handled the votes of elderly party members and that the party's central office has clearly intimidated her to change her story and incriminate Ojuland and himself.
President calls heads of parties to discuss political situation.
President Toomas Hendrik Ilves has called a meeting of party chairmen for Friday in order to discuss the political situation. "I have invited heads of parliament parties to meet me in Kadriorg on Friday so we can discuss Estonia's domestic situation. The latter is extremely worrisome and it is a question of nothing less than the credibility of Estonian party democracy," the President posted on his Facebook page.
Doctors demand Health Insurance Board complies with collective agreement.
The Estonian Medical Association finds that the Health Insurance Board has failed to comply with the conditions of the collective agreement that ended the recent medical workers' strike as concerns workload of doctors and nurses. Medical associations claim that additional minutes doctors and nurses can spend with individual patients have not been increased in the agreed-upon volume. The fund maintains that it has complied with requirements and that the dispute has to do with different methods of calculating working hours. Chairman of the fund's supervisory board, social minister Taavi Rõivas said that the board will convene again on Friday to discuss the situation.