Voter 'Compass' Reveals Parliamentary Favorites
A voter guide website was launched today, helping voters to see which MP is closest aligned with their personal views.
The website, which is only available in Estonian (although English and Russian interfaces will also be available later on) asks users to vote for or against 30 bills that were voted on by members of Parliament since 2011, when the current crop were elected.
The compass lists all 101 members of Parliament in order of how their votes matched the votes of the website's user. Party alignments are also displayed.
University of Tartu researcher Kristjan Vassil, who was heavily involved with the project, said the compass allows voters to see how well their elected official is representing them. Vassil said the website will be developed further.
MP Indrek Saar was one of the first people to try out the compass, scoring a 94 percent match with fellow Social Democrat Mart Meri, but only 90 percent with himself.
A similar guide set up for the 2011 elections drew over 110,000 users. The current edition has been used over 2,000 times today.
The compass was created by University of Tartu's Institute of Government and Politics, Ahhaa Science Center, the e-Governance Academy and ERR.