Ojuland decides not to sue Reform.
Postimees Digest, Monday, August 26
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Former head of the ruling Reform Party's Lääne-Viru County branch Kristiina Ojuland, evicted from the party at the beginning of June following suspicions of having rigged votes at in-house elections, has decided not to sue the party and apply for her reinstatement and concentrate instead on domestic matters. "When I was ousted from the party it was a great emotional loss and a difficult ordeal, which is why I was prepared to go to court to restore my membership status," Ojuland says in a recent opinion piece in Delfi.
Social democrats discover 42,000 euro advertising invoice.
The Social Democrat Party (SDE) has complemented its previous elections budget report with a 42,000 euro invoice, following a request sent to all parties by the Riigikogu Party Financing Monitoring Committee asking for detailed reports of television advertising expenses made during the 2011 parliamentary elections campaign. Member of the committee, IRL's Kert Karus said that he believes the social democrats have made attempts to underreport expenses and therefore held back information that should have been made public. While the expenses receipt in question is included in the party's books and its annual report, it was not declared as part of SDE's election campaign report. The Social Democrat Party said the mistake is due to the fact that the party did not separate election expenses from general expenses in its chart of accounts in 2011 and that the report and additional documents were drawn up by hand. Speculations that have appeared in the media hold the discrepancy between actual campaign expenses and those reported by SDE to be far bigger than 42,000 euros, said the Reform Party's Ants Leemets. Chairman of the committee, social democrat Ardo Ojasalu said the committee will form an opinion by its next session on September 18.
Center Party enjoys support of half of Tallinn.
The Center Party managed to boost its nationwide support rating by 8 percentage points to 35 in August while the party now has the support of almost half the people in the capital Tallinn. Results of the recent poll by TNS Emor suggest the party's success owes the most to increased activity of Russian-speaking voters. The Social Democrat Party (SDE) remains in second place after a ratings boost of 3 percent from July. Both the ruling Reform Party and Pro Patria Res Publica Union (IRL) have lost support to minor parties. The poll reflects the answers of residents who have the right to participate in local elections.