OSCE/ODIHR final report on Estonia’s parliamentary elections recommends additional measures to further enhance transparency and accountability of Internet voting and campaign finance

The introduction of end-to-end verifiability and the certification in the Internet voting system are among the main recommendations contained in a final report by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on the 1 March 2015 parliamentary elections in Estonia.

While the report, published on 26 May 2015, noted that Internet voting enjoys a high degree of trust in Estonia and was administered efficiently and in line with the legal framework, it also recommends that the National Electoral Committee consider publishing full audit reports of the Internet voting system and producing and retaining records at all stages of the process. The report highlights that publishing detailed and formal procedures and deadlines for software development, testing and updates of the system could also increase transparency. It also recommends that qualifications for the members of the Electronic Voting Committee be formalized and all of the Committee’s decisions be formally adopted and published.

The report notes that the legal framework for regulating political party and campaign finance is generally solid. It points out, however, that the misuse of public resources, specifically by local government authorities, for campaigning is a continuing problem. The report recommends that consideration be given to limiting the amount a single donor may contribute to a candidate or political party in a year. It also calls upon the authorities to consider amending the law to provide the Political Party Finance Supervision Committee with more resources and authority to conduct investigations to improve the effectiveness of political and campaign finance oversight. To enhance the transparency of campaign finance, the report recommends that the authorities amend the law to require reporting on election-related expenditures by third parties.

The OSCE/ODIHR election expert team (EET) noted a positive trend of parties across the political spectrum placing candidates belonging to national minorities on party lists, in some cases in prominent positions, coupled with greater efforts by parties and candidates to reach out to Russian-speaking voters, including with campaign information in Russian. The report recommends, however, that the authorities maintain and enhance their efforts to stimulate the naturalization rate among the still-large group of people of undetermined citizenship, with a view to granting them suffrage rights.

On 15 February, ODIHR deployed an EET to observe the parliamentary elections. The OSCE/ODIHR EET focused on particular aspects of the elections related to Internet voting, political party and campaign finance, and the participation of national minorities.