Reform Party decides against new elections

  • 2013-06-26
  • From wire reports

TALLINN - At an extraordinary council meeting of the senior government coalition party, the Reform Party decided during the June 15 weekend that it won’t convene a new general assembly and will not hold new internal elections. This also means that the powers of the current board will last for the next two years, reports Public Broadcasting.
Prime Minister and Reform Party chairman Andrus Ansip said that the decision by the council was a confidence vote for his activities.

The report on the internal voting fraud that was delivered at the meeting indicated that five people, who have by now left the party or have been expelled, were involved in organizing the identity theft, and that there were 71 cases of vote manipulation. The party members, however, decided that this was not a sufficient reason to convene a new general assembly and elect a new board.

“It was definitely a confidence vote for me and I am glad that we have summed up that the elections fraud was carried out in the Reform Party by five persons. And the general position is that 13,000 party members don’t have to suffer because of five fraudsters,” said Ansip, who before the council meeting had said that if new board elections are held, he would not be running for the party chairman’s post again.

The party might convene a new general assembly in December to change the statutes and internal voting procedures, if the party’s working groups decide there is a need to do so.