Estonia parliamentary elections 2019: ODIHR observation mission final report

Following Estonia’s parliamentary elections on 3 March 2019, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has published its final conclusions. The election was run in a professional and efficient manner, with widespread public confidence in most stages of the process. Nevertheless, the work of the election administration, the implementation of internet voting, and the participation of national minorities in the electoral process, could benefit from further improvement.

Key recommendations include:

• Further review the provisions on the appointment of voting district committees by municipal councils and related legal redress mechanisms.

• Increase efforts to assist people with disabilities to participate in the voting process by improving the accessibility of polling stations, developing accessible information materials and tools, and improving digital tools and online applications.

• As internet voting continues to grow in popularity, technological specifications for the internet voting system should be listed in detail and the auditing system strengthened.

• Also with regard to internet voting, risk-mitigating strategies and a review of the potential effects of cyber-attack allegations against the internet voting infrastructure are needed.

• While Estonia has recently made efforts to promote the participation of national minorities in public and political life, there is a need to further increase the naturalization rate among people of so-called undetermined citizenship, with a view to granting them full voting rights.

ODIHR deployed an Election Expert Team (EET) on 19 February 2019 to observe the parliamentary elections. The EET focused on election administration, internet voting, and the participation of national minorities in the election. All 57 countries across the OSCE region have formally committed to follow up promptly on ODIHR’s election assessments and recommendations.