In the border city, polling stations were still open on election day (October 19) when local politicians began speaking out about vote-buying.

The most vocal protest came from the electoral alliance Plan B, led by Urbo Vaarmann. He said the problems began during advance voting, the week running up to election day on Sunday.

"In the past, you would get one payment for one vote, but today I've already heard stories where people manage to sell their vote three times. First they sell it digitally, then since digital votes can be changed, they vote again digitally, and today they are also voting on paper. I do not want to say these are just rumors, but we get dozens of such messages every day," said Vaarmann.

Other leaders of Narva electoral lists also pointed to possible vote-buying.

Independent candidate and Mayor of Narva Katri Raik said it is suspicious when a single candidate receives an overwhelming majority of votes from one polling station or when a large number of e-votes are cast by the head of an institution. However, there is no concrete evidence of fraud.

"These are all urban legends, and they all need to be investigated by the police. And Narva has painful experience from the previous elections, which actually ended with one person going to prison. So we will wait and see, but unfortunately, the situation has not improved this time," Raik said.

Cases are being investigated, but the police are unwilling to disclose details before any public procedural steps have been taken.

"I wouldn't speak about the proceedings right now, because information about an ongoing investigation — especially regarding elections — could harm the process. Usually, a couple of months after the elections is a better time to provide a summary of the proceedings. But yes, the picture is such that this is more of a problem in Ida-Viru County," said Allar Lehtlaan, head of the Eastern Division of the Bureau for Corruption Crimes.

The police received over 50 reports related to possible violations of electoral freedom, nearly two-thirds of which came from Ida-Viru County.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!