Estonian Reform Party chair: Vote manipulator has come clean

Photo: Margus Ansu

The chairman of the Estonian Reform Party, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, said in a radio appearance on Friday that the identity of the person who manipulated the results of the party's internal election is known to the party.

"The secretary general of the party has a person's explanatory letter in which the person admits having committed those acts," Ansip said. In his words, the culprit also gives to understand that he/she manipulated the vote at someone else's will. Ansip refused to name any names, saying that the task force formed by the party to get to the bottom of the affair will gather on Monday.

According to Ansip, there are fewer than 20 persons in the Reform Party who can reset a password for logging in to the party's internal network if a member has forgotten it. "At this point it seems indeed that one of those 20 has abused a position of trust," he stated.

The party leader said that according to present information the voting fraud was limited to the West-Viru region. In his words, more than 30 suspect votes are known by now, but he said they did not affect the outcome of the vote.

"In any case it's highly regrettable that someone doctored the election results," Ansip said adding that in his view there is no place for such a person in the Reform Party.

The weekly Eesti Ekspress reported on Thursday it had information which suggests that online votes were cast in the party board elections in the name of elderly members of the party who actually did not participate in the vote.

According to the paper fraud was committed in both the 2011 and last week's leadership election. Six senior citizens from the West-Viru region told the paper that they had not participated in the election although records show they had cast e-votes. The paper believes this may be just the tip of the iceberg as it took only the West-Viru region under scrutiny.

Eesti Ekspress suspects that fictitious e-mail addresses were created in the name of the pensioners who had joined the party to obtain from the party headquarters passwords and user names which then were used to log in to the party's internal network and cast e-ballots to affect the outcome of the elections.

It is the Reform Party's practice to restrict access to personal data of members of regional organizations to the regional leader and development director, in this case MEP Kristiina Ojuland and Taimi Samblik. Ojuland on Friday denied involvement in the voting fraud.

The Reform Party has formed an investigative group to look into the voting fraud allegations which consists of MPs Vaino Linde and Peep Aru, head of the party's regional organizations division Reimo Nebokat, IT chief Mati Leet and secretary general Martin Kukk.