Estonia 2023 parliamentary elections: ODIHR election expert team final report

The March 2023 parliamentary elections in Estonia were competitive and pluralistic and the election process, including internet voting, was administered efficiently, with minor technical difficulties. While trust in the internet vote remains high, some parties publicly questioned its integrity, often as part of their campaigning. The legal framework constitutes a sound basis for the conduct of democratic elections and ensures equal participation of national minorities. The integrity of political financing is ensured, but some aspects, such as campaign funding limits and third-party campaigning could be further improved.

These are some of the main conclusions of the final report published by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). The report offers 16 recommendations to bring elections in Estonia closer in line with OSCE commitments and other international standards for democratic elections.

Key recommendations include:

• Proactively addressing all concerns raised by some election stakeholders who distrust the results of internet voting;

• Putting in place a quality assurance process that includes the comprehensive testing of the internet voting system before deployment;

• Explaining the process and timeline for reporting results in due time before election day;

• Amending law to establish deadlines by which unpaid bills related to campaign expenditures must be serviced;

• Mandating that all campaign advertisements include information on who produced and paid for them;

• Introducing campaign spending limits to avoid escalating campaign expenditure and enhance equity among parties and candidates;

• Including in the law a comprehensive definition of what activities of unaffiliated third-party organizations constitute election campaigning and provide for their accountability;

• Making efforts by the authorities and political actors to lessen the divisive rhetoric in political discourse and during the election campaign to prevent alienation and marginalization of minority groups.

ODIHR deployed an Election Expert Team (EET) on 22 February 2023 to observe the parliamentary elections. The EET focused on internet voting, party and campaign finance and minority issues. All 57 countries across the OSCE region have formally committed to following up promptly on ODIHR’s election assessments and recommendations.