Estonia's ruling coalition planning changes in election law

TALLINN (BNS) - A bill is under preparation in Estonia which would
make it impossible for parties in the next elections in 2003 to
present lists of candidates with as many as 300 names for the
101-seat legislature, like many of them did in last spring's polls.

The major political parties are relatively unanimous that tickets
that long make no sense, unnecessarily extending the race ground and
taking too big an effort from the parties themselves, the daily
Postimees reported in its June 13 edition.In the last general
elections in 1999, the Moderates' ticket included 303 names, the
Center Party, 242 and the Reform Party, 212.

"Our first preference would be that each ticket would comprise up to
101 names," Reform Party faction head Jurgen Ligi said.

Speaking from the government coalition's senior member Pro Patria
Union, general secretary Andres Ammas said that besides cutting the
maximum length of tickets to 101 names, the entire election system
has to be simplified, because under the current rules, it is very
difficult for the voter to understand how exactly his or her vote has
shaped the composition of Parliament.

A work group has been set up with the Ministry of Justice to draft
the amendments.

The head of the group, Alo Heinsalu, said the suggested amendments at
the present stage were mostly technical. "Setting limitations on the
length of tickets has been under discussion," he said. "The
suggestions are up to 101, 123 or 147 names."

The figure 101 equals the number of seats in the national
legislature, while 123 takes into account the hypothetical
possibility that a single party wins all the seats and would also
have to find replacements for the seats vacated by MPs who form the
government.

The amendments, however, would first have to pass the Parliament's
constitutional affairs committee, whose chair Liia Hanni said the key
alternatives still haven't been debated by parties.

There is no agreement yet concerning possible crucial changes in the
election law, such as moving the 5 percent vote threshold or changing
the principle how the election outcome is determined.

Ants Kaarma, deputy chair of the opposition People's Union, said
opposition parties were not very well briefed about the planned
changes.

"It's time for us to start in-depth surveillance," Kaarma said. He
said it is possible that the plan contains changes that would work
against the opposition in next general elections.

Kaarma added however that he saw the plan to cut the maximum length
of tickets to 101 names as reasonable.

Kaarma also said that like the ruling parties, he is against a
proposal by small political parties to lower the threshold for entry
into parliament from the present five percent.

Heinsalu said that while the Estonian election system has attracted
criticism because of its complexity, it's a clear sign of its
strength that the parliament has been able to form a clear majority
government after all three elections since the country regained its
independence in 1991.