Estonian electoral compass launched
ERR and the University of Tartu have launched a voting advice website where people can discover their position in the political landscape for upcoming elections.
Voters are asked to give their opinion on 30 propositions and finally indicate what issues are more and what are less important to them.
Based on answers, the compass then gives an end result, ranking the political parties accordingly. Voters can further analyse their political preferences by clicking on the party of preference, after which they can compare their own position on different topics with the parties.
It is the second time such a compass is launched in Estonia. Before the previous elections in 2011, 110,000 people used it.
“The electoral compass helps to bypass the usual stereotypes and focus on what is important in any democratic country – main policies,” Kristjan Vassil, the project manager behind the electoral compass, and a researcher at the University of Tartu, said.
The issues covered by the compass mainly concern many acute topics in Estonia, such as tax reform, the wage gap and equality between men and women, immigration, defense policies, the participation of Russian minority in the Estonian society. It also asks voters position on the Cohabitation Act, even though it was passed into law last autumn.
Currently, the compass is only available in Estonian.
Parliamentary elections will be held in Estonia on March 1.
Editor: S. Tambur