Ojuland Denies Any Role in Voting Fraud
MEP Kristiina Ojuland has denied involvement in voting fraud after it emerged yesterday that someone could have stolen e-votes from elderly Reform Party members in an internal leadership election last week as well as in 2011.
Ojuland is the Reform Party representative for Lääne-Viru County, a voting district that is at the center of the scandal.
One of the purported victims was Heli Laine Sinijärv, an 89-year-old Rakvere woman who joined the party four years ago, ETV reported. According to records, Sinijärv issued an e-vote in last week's election. But this was news to Sinijärv when she was approached, saying she did not even own a computer and that she did not vote. Sinijärv did, however, receive a call a few weeks ago from Ojuland, who had asked for her support in the election. Soon after, Sinijärv appeared to have been among the 1,494 members who voted, all but 129 of whom cast e-ballots.
Ojuland confirmed calling hundreds of party members to ask for their support in the run-up to the election, which would determine the 15 members of the party's leadership.
"I asked for people's support and whether they would vote for me," Ojuland told ERR radio today.
But that was the extent of her influence on the voting, Ojuland said, denying any involvement in fraud.
"Looking at the number of votes I got, there should be no reason for me to take part in vote buying or manipulation. I received the fifth-best result of 21 candidates," Ojuland said.
Eesti Ekspress reported yesterday that only two people have access to personal data on the Reform Party's online voting network - Ojuland and development director Taimi Samblik.
"But I definitely could not have checked how they voted because I don't have any kind of access to people's passwords," Ojuland said.
"Access to personal information is restricted to very few people in the party and I'm not among them."
Public prosecutor Dilaila Nahkur-Tammiksaare said there are so far no plans to initiate a criminal investigation, since the laws on election fraud pertain to government elections. In order for identity theft to have taken place, the case would need to entail damage to people's interests or rights.
Reform Party MP Väino Linde said that initial findings indicate that voting fraud was isolated to Lääne-Viru County.