Liia Hänni: Marking ballot papers violates voting confidentiality principles
If it turns out that the marking of ballots at last Sunday's vote at Tallinn City Council which resulted in Jevgeni Ossinovski (SDE) becoming mayor did indeed make it possible to determine how individuals voted, this would undoubtedly constitute a violation of the principle of secret ballots, constitutional expert Liia Hänni said Wednesday.
Hänni, a member of the constitutional assembly that drafted the Estonian Constitution 1991-1992, told ERR in a short interview that any method of marking ballots that can reveal an individual's vote breaches the principle of secrecy.
If marked ballots were used at the Tallinn City Council mayoral vote, given that we know that election ballots are supposed to be secret in principle, what is your assessment of this situation?
The exact details of how these ballots were marked and what took in Tallinn are unclear to me as I have not seen them yet. However, if an investigation is started, that should reveal those details.
A secret ballot is a critical principle that allows an individual to express their will without interference. The National Electoral Committee (VVK) has previously stressed that, for instance, taking pictures of a ballot to one has cast to show others is a violation of this principle.
This makes it justified to take a closer look at the recent events in Tallinn.
Why is the principle of confidentiality so important in voting?
The importance of the confidentiality principle in voting lies in its constitutional guarantee.
This ensures that individuals can vote freely, without any external control over their will; a fundamental principle of democracy.
When voting, we democratically form the governing powers in our country, but if individuals cannot freely express their will, that opens the scope for manipulation of the people's intentions. So this principle is crucial to uphold.
While the Constitution does not demand stated ethical behavior from politicians and representatives, we cannot tolerate situations where individuals might sign off on their conduct as a form of affirmation, only to exploit opportunities not to fulfill these pledges at a later date.
This situation has also raised concerns on finding ways to potentially check or scrutinize how political parties act; something which is not justifiable since the secret ballot principle is a constitutional one and not just a matter of ethics or of political procedure.
--
Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!
Editor: Andrew Whyte
