Estonian Supreme Court declines Conservatives' request to consider claim contesting voting results in parliamentary election

TALLINN. March 10 (Interfax) - The Supreme Court of Estonia has declined to consider the Estonian Conservative People's Party (EKRE) claim contesting the results of electronic voting in the March 5 parliamentary election.

"The Constitutional Review Chamber said a complaint about the actions of the service organizing the election should be filed on a priority basis with the National Electoral Committee, which EKRE, according to the information of the National Electoral Committee, did not do. A claim can be filed with the Supreme Court only after the issue is considered by the Electoral Committee," the Supreme Court said on Friday.

The Estonian Supreme Court said consideration of the claim was outside its jurisdiction and therefore it did not consider it.

Estonian Conservatives on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to invalidate the results of electronic voting in the parliamentary election. In particular, they said a number of anomalies and technical errors had been found in the electronic voting, which called into question the reliability of the infrastructure used. The conservatives confidently led when the ballots cast at polling stations were being counted. However, after the results of electronic voting were published, the leading Reform Party started to lead. The Reform Party received 37 of the 101 seats in the parliament after 97% of the votes were counted. The Conservatives came in second with 17 mandates.

The Electoral Committee cannot sum up the voting outcome until the Conservatives' claim is considered. At the same time, the leaders of a new coalition being created and President Alar Karis said they hope it will not delay the creation of a new ruling alliance.