Prime Minister Andrus Ansip has drawn a connection in the e-voting fraud scandal with MEP Kristiina Ojuland. Ansip told Postimees after a party meeting that Ojuland has made payments from her personal bank account to compensate the party membership dues of 39 people whose identities are suspected to have been stolen. Võru County has emerged as the second voting district to be wrapped up in the Reform Party’s leadership election scandal, in which an insider is suspected of secretly casting e-votes on behalf of elderly party members who claim not to have voted. Only a few cases of identity theft are suspected in Võru County, as opposed to dozens in Lääne-Viru County, ERR radio reported.
As part of an internal investigation, the party has called in Taimi Samblik, a party development director, and Einar Vallbaum, the head of Lääne-Viru County, for questioning today.
MP Väino Linde said he hopes to finish the investigation by tomorrow after which the case will go to the party’s court of honor.
On Friday, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said a member of his party had admitted to manipulating e-votes in the Reform Party’s leadership election in May and in another election in 2011. The suspect had said that he or she had acted on the request of someone else. The suspected fraud was exposed by a newspaper last week.
Full Article: In E-Voting Scandal, Suspicions Arise Over MEP Kristiina Ojuland | Politics | News | ERR.