Kõlvart: Tallinn mayoral elections were not secret

Center Party chairman and former Mayor of Tallinn Mihhail Kõlvart on Wednesday said several rules were broken during the Tallinn mayoral elections and the vote should be annulled.
Center's Tallinn faction re-examined the ballot papers from Sunday's vote on Wednesday and said they found a pattern suggesting the voting process was not secret.
It said the four parties making up the new coalition used a code to identify which way members voted. This was done by putting a mark in a specific corner of the box.
Kõlvart said this means the results should be canceled because the elections were not carried out in secret, as required by law.
"Elections must be free, meaning that people must be able to vote freely, without pressure or obstacles. Elections must necessarily be secret and the ambassador must be able to exercise a free mandate. These principles seem to have been violated in the Tallinn mayoral elections," said Kõlvart.

On Sunday, it took three rounds to elect the capital's new mayor Jevgeni Ossinovski (SDE). Kõlvart said the pattern emerged in the third vote and that it clearly shows how members voted.
"Each political group put a cross in a different corner of the box and it is easy to see who voted how. In this way, it was possible to identify which political groups had members who did not support Jevgeni Ossinovski, and to influence the commissioners during the voting breaks," he noted.
"There is no doubt that we do not see a European and transparent new political culture in the actions of the new Tallinn City Council," Kõlvart added. "We will discuss the situation within the political faction in the council, but we will certainly turn to the Chancellor of Justice for an assessment."
The Chancellor of Justice's office told ERR on Wednesday that the Center Party's appeal has already been submitted.

The party is also considering turning to the Internal Security Services (ISS) or the Prosecutor's Office.
Maris Sild, SDE's Tallinn faction leader, told ERR members was no pressure on members.
"There is in fact no irregularity and all members were free to cast their votes. I confirm that all members in our faction have free will, everyone can make their own decisions, and there was no coercion," she said.
On Sunday, Ossinovski was elected as the mayor of Tallinn on the third attempt. He failed to collect the minimum 40 votes in the first two rounds.
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Editor: Marko Tooming, Helen Wright