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On top of the six political parties represented in Riigikogu, Estonia has five more that the public rarely hears of and which are having constant difficulty with reporting and accountability.
Small parties struggle with reporting
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Of the five small parties, four participated at Riigikogu elections this spring. Of these, Estonian Independence Party has the largest membership of 2,084 people, while Estonian United Left Party also nears the 2,000 member level. The Greens, a parliament party in the last Riigikogu membership but one, has 1,101 people in it, and Party of People’s Unity founded last year has 504.
«Obviously, some parties actually have no real activity, at least when annual reports are to be trusted,» said Ardo Ojasalu, chairman of supervisory committee for party financing.
As at today, Independence Party and the Lefties are yet to submit running revenues and expenditure report, while the latter and the Greens have not filed last year’s annual report.
It’s worst for Estonian Freedom Party – Farmers’ Assembly and its 923 members, who did not present its list to the recent Riigikogu elections nor have submitted reports for 2013 and 2014.
This spring, the court cautioned the party it may be deleted due to failure to submit annual report for 2013.
According to deputy chairman for surveillance committee Kaarel Tarand, if the parties cannot manage their own affairs, it would be vain to expect active involvement in society.
He said it would be better in such situation for a party to call its members together, pursuant to statutes, recognising it has failed, and dissolve. «We all, surveillance bodies included, are tagging them along as a dead cat and waste time keeping them in the tables, though in reality they do not exist. In Estonia, this issue is not solved prudently,» he noted.
Mr Tarand said the state should snuff such parties out, but in reality these procedures tend to be delayed.
Independence Party head Sven Sildnik said the party has run into difficulty with state bureaucracy before. «The accusations that Independence Party has no essential activities are not true, as the opposite is evidenced by a string of Security Police annual reviews,» said Mr Sildnik.
«We do have faults in party reporting but these will be liquidated even before the ruling parties ensure Estonian citizens a worthy minimal wage, a worthy pension and a right to residence, in accordance to European Social Charter indicators.»