Politicians in no rush to condemn electoral committee

Photo: Tairo Lutter

Though Tallinn electoral committee discovered as much as seven errors when rereading votes of Viktoria Ladõnskaja and Sven Sester and the district’s invalid ballot papers yesterday, experts rather think this to be triviality – no need to question election results as such.  

The man most critical towards work by electoral committee was justice minister Andres Anvelt (SDE). «Sure, a large error is remarkable. Possibly, there would be a need to recount all votes in Tallinn city centre, Lasnamäe and Pirita electoral districts,» he suggested.

According to Mr Anvelt, the swapping of places between Sester/Ladõnskaja might then not prove the only such case. «For number ones, the errors change nothing, but they do for replacement members – between them, the gaps were much narrower. I believe this should cause serious thought at electoral committee.»

Inevitable slips

With this agrees IRL secretary-general Tiit Riisalo, in whose opinion the state ought to consider how to make future elections more explicit and guide the vote counters better. «Probably, the ballot paper formats, obviously dating from early 1990ies, should be made such as allowing easier verification of what the voters said,» offered Mr Riisalo.

The issue is not to be trifled with: assuming that electoral committees slipped to such a degree elsewhere as well, over a thousand votes may have been misread in Estonia as a whole.

According to EKRE vice chairman Martin Helme, a seasoned observer at numerous elections, errors at counting votes are inevitable and the situation would be bad if a mandate would have changed parties.   

Now, the change of place occurred within IRL. «For me, what matters most is that votes can be recounted: the protest by Ms Ladõnskaja was reckoned with, it was not swept under the carpet,» Mr Helme pointed out. According to him, this is also a reason why paper polls are more to be trusted than e-elections.

Former justice minister and Reform faction head Kristen Michal begs to totally differ. Unlike Mr Helme, he thinks the Ladõnskaja/Sester votes debate speaks in the favour of e-elections, as there such slips are excluded.

Professor emeritus and statistician Ene-Margit Tiit does not consider seven errors a tragedy. Even so, at next elections people should be reminded more carefully about   when a vote becomes invalid.

«As an individual goes to put the paper in the ballot box, the attendant might ask before stamping the paper whether the individual made any corrections on it; if so, better take another paper,» advised Ms Tiit.

Heiki Sibul, a former long-time chairman of National Electoral Committee (NEC), said the amount of errors is nothing abnormal. Differing sets of people, assessing numbers written by hand, may indeed arrive at differing results.

Mr Sibul was reminded of a case similar to Ladõnskaja/Sester happened at 2009 EU elections with the soc dem Ivari Padar whose votes were recounted several times, arriving at different results. «A glance at the ballot papers back then which we declared invalid, reveals how hard it is to judge certain handwritings,» said Mr Sibul.

What next?

Mr Sibul said that all who feel infringed in their subjective rights by the Sester/Ladõnskaja story may file a complaint. As the right to complain is limited to Tallinn city centre, Lasnamäe and Pirita electoral district, at least in theory the option remains that all votes in said district will need to be recounted.

According to sworn lawyer and law teacher Carri Ginter, however, it contesting the entire Estonian election results is excluded. The deadline came and went on March 5^th, and the spirit of the deadline is to ensure legal peace for election results.

True, a third option does exist – should National Electoral Committee so desire, it might initiate repeat elections. «To do this, the committee can in no way be forced. It must be considered that this would be an extreme measure which would seriously threaten political stability in Estonia,» said Mr Ginter.

Last night, NEC said they would be apprised of the recounting of votes while underlining that the large amount of errors found was an exception and not a rule. «It is regrettable that the errors happened, but as ballot papers are filled and interpreted by humans, mistakes happen,» said NEC adviser Kirsti Kirsberg.

Third reading grants seat in parliament

March 1^st, at night: electoral committee is counting Tallinn city centre, Lasnamäe and Pirita votes. Ms Ladõnskaja gets a one vote advantage before Mr Sester: 1,395 to 1,394.

March 2^nd, regular repeat counting: in the morning, votes of Ms Ladõnskaja and Mr Sester even out, as electoral committee declares invalid a paper with Ms Ladõnskaja’s number where the voter appears to have defaced out a digit and rewritten it. By law, such a paper is invalid, it being impossible to prove the alteration didn’t happen afterwards. By 5:50 pm, the committee cancels yet another vote of Ms Ladõnskaja’s, which was not stamped before inserted into box. The Riigikogu seat goes to Mr Sester.

Repeat counting on March 11^th: Ms Ladõnskaja’s tally stays the same (1,393); however, the committee rejects two votes for Mr Sester that it earlier approved. One of these lacked the stamp, the other had Mr Sester’s candidate number written several times over, and it was suspected that the first digit was corrected.