According to a statement sent by the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE)'s press office, security protocols of the State Electoral Office (RVT) where violated during the trial vote and the electronic voting key generation process carried out on September 29 and 30, allowing key holders to leave the room while the process was underway.

Under the law, the Office "creates, in a public setting, an encryption key for securing electronic votes and a decryption key for opening them" and "before the start of electronic voting, the State Electoral Office must organize a public trial vote," the statement said.

Chip cards used to store parts of the decryption key and the external hard drive containing the operating system for key use must remain sealed with a security sticker when not in use. This is to ensure that unauthorized individuals cannot access the key components stored on the cards, or if they do, the tampering can be detected by a broken seal.

However, EKRE said members of the National Electoral Committee disregarded this sealing requirement, making it possible to tamper with the chip cards needed to decrypt the votes.

"At the trial vote held in the Riigikogu conference hall on September 30, the auditor inspected and removed the security seals from the chip cards for use. After decrypting the votes cast during the trial vote, election commission members Olari Koppel, Ingrid Kullerkann, Sirje Kaljumäe, Epp Hannus and Airi Mikli took the cards with them into the conference hall, where for about 15 minutes they remained unsealed," the party said in its press release. "This occurred despite a clear instruction from RVT official and e-voting task force head Indrek Lees to have the cards resealed immediately after use. As a result, the keys created during the process are compromised. Under such arrangements, the security of the keys is merely superficial. In practice, this creates the possibility that the keys were copied or tampered with. Consequently, unauthorized individuals could gain access to voter data and preferences and it could even enable the creation of supposedly official election results that cannot be distinguished from those signed by the RVT itself," EKRE stated.

"The situation is made worse by the even looser application of security procedures compared with previous elections. Although the software used to create and divide the decryption key allows assigning a PIN code to each card user, this was not done. Therefore, anyone with physical access to a chip card could read the key components without the cardholder's knowledge. It is also widely known that such cards can be read or copied remotely using technology," EKRE added.

"Whereas in the past the goal was to verify the hardware and software supply chain used for key procedures during the public preparatory process, this has now been completely abandoned. Similarly, the original e-voting security model required the use of a hardware security module for key management, but that requirement has also been dropped," EKRE said.

The party also noted that the National Electoral Committee (VVK) had, at its meeting on October 9, 2025, annulled its earlier decisions No. 94 and No. 95 adopted on February 9, 2024. "To the complainant's knowledge, electronic voting is currently taking place without the valid technical requirements prescribed by law. This means that e-voting is being conducted without a valid procedure," EKRE emphasized in its appeal.

In connection with this, EKRE said it is seeking the immediate suspension of electronic voting until the deficiencies are corrected and the annulment of all electronic votes cast so far.

"We believe that electronic voting, as it is currently being conducted, infringes upon the rights of the party and its candidates," EKRE chair Martin Helme said in conclusion.

Office head: Everyone free to lodge complaints

Arne Koitmäe, head of the State Electoral Office, said on the "Vikerhommik" radio program Wednesday that he does not see any violations in the incident.

"This concerns the trial vote, which is essentially a final test conducted before the elections to verify that the decryption key for opening votes works properly," he explained. "The key is divided among members of the Electoral Committee and employees of the State Electoral Office. During this test, the sealed keys that were handed over to them the previous day are unsealed and used to open the test votes. It's all part of one continuous procedure and afterward the seals are reattached. So yes, the keys were unsealed, but that was necessary for the test process," Koitmäe said.

Asked whether the complaint might be an attempt to influence the election results, Koitmäe replied: "Anyone can contest election procedures if they believe they were not conducted properly or that their rights were violated. We regularly receive complaints about how electronic voting is organized — this year, in fact, quite a few even before the elections — and the National Electoral Committee will review them all."

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