Electoral Committee does u-turn over Ladõnskaja complaint rejection
The National Electoral Committee has overruled a Tallinn election committee decision not to recount the votes of IRL's Viktoria Ladõnskaja and Sven Sester, and the second recount will now take place.
Kristi Kirsberg of the National Electoral Committee, told ERR that the Tallinn committee acted in its rights when rejecting the plea by Ladõnskaja for a second recount, after Ladõnskaja beat Sester by one vote in the initial count, only to lose two votes in a recount.
Kirsberg said due to high public interest towards the case and in the name of fair, transparent and trustworthy elections, the national-level committee decided that a second recount of both Ladõnskaja's, Sester's votes, and all spoiled votes in the district should go ahead.
The National Electoral Committee received a total of 10 complaints, besides the one from Ladõnskaja, eight were submitted by activist Meelis Kaldalu. The other nine complaints were rejected as they did not meet requirements set for an election complaint.
According to the initial count, Ladõnskaja received 1,395 votes, but in a recount two votes were deemed spoiled, sending Sester to Parliament in her place, as IRL only won one mandate in the district.
Had the initial results stood and Sester lost by one vote, the likelihood of him entering the Parliament would still have been great as he was IRL's first replacement MP in the nationwide ranking of its candidates.
Read about the results of the recount here.
Editor: J.M. Laats