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As of this midnight, the window is closed for forwarding ideas and proposals into crowd-sourcing portal rahvakogu.ee, the most popular idea being the proposal to ban members of the parliament of Estonia from standing as candidates at local elections. By 12 am, 1944 proposals had been forwarded.
The largest amount of proposals – 627 – came under the varia category. 624 proposals were made regarding elections, the remaining categories drew under 300 proposals. The ideas sent the earliest received the most attention.
Under the category of financing for political parties (279 proposals), the most popular idea was to stop making dismissal compensation payments to members of parliament. The idea was supported by 262 people with nine against.
In the category of honest and lively competition within and between political parties, the most liked was a proposal by Elver Loho to allow political parties to be registered with as few as 200 members. An equal amount of «likes» was awarded to a proposal to ratify the parliament’s code of ethics as a parliament resolution or amendment, annexing it, for instance, to Status of Member of Riigikogu [parliament] Act. Both proposals got 180 yes-votes, with 130 proposals submitted for the category, overall.
Under the category of elections, two proposals stood out. One would ban members of the parliament from running for local posts; another would ensure that a citizen’s vote goes to the candidate specified. Both proposals got 337 yes-votes.
In the involvement-category, the most popular idea was to adopt Iceland’s people’s initiative system, under which every citizen may have a say in how the city of Reykjavik is to be developed.
The forced politicizing category received the fewest of proposals – only 80. The most popular was Sergey Metlev’s idea to stop involving politicians in supervisory boards of municipal and state enterprises, foundations and sports federations, being supported by 334 people.
The most popular varia proposal was the idea of parliament members not being allowed to purchase personal items with money allotted for reimbursement of expenses. 223 were for, one against.
During February, analysts of the political think-tank Praxis will be processing the proposals and comments, sorting them into possible scenarios. Thereafter, political scientists and other experts will provide an initial impact analysis.
In March, one or several discussion days will be organised, with the best scenarios selected. After that, the President Toomas Hendrik Ilves has promised to forward the documents to the parliament, with proposals to amend existing law.
The People’s Assembly is organized by volunteers from various non-governmental organizations, such as Estonian Cooperation Assembly, the Praxis Centre for Policy Studies, Network of Estonian Nonprofit Organizations, the e- Governance Academy, the Open Estonia Foundation, as well as political parties, IT and communications professionals, and others.