Conference: ‘e-Voting: opportunities and challenges’

Constituents in Estonia were given the chance to vote electronically for the first time in the local government elections held in 2005. This was a significant step on Estonia’s journey towards the information society, offering people an opportunity to participate in the exercising of public authority using modern means of communication.

The aim of the conference was to shine the spotlight on the e-voting system from every angle and to highlight its lawfulness and reliability. Invited to speak about their experience from other countries’ e-voting projects were such internationally recognised experts as Professor Alexander H. Trechsel from the e-Democracy Centre and Dr Lawrence Pratchett from De Nontfort University.

As the debates held in the Riigikogu highlighted a number of risks that could accompany this new way of voting, the conference programme included an inter-party panel on the good practice principles of e-voting.

A special area was also set up during the conference in which anyone interested could try e-voting for themselves.