Greens call for election deposits to be refunded regardless of results

Estonia’s non-parliamentary Eestimaa Greens party supports a proposal to reduce election deposits and says they should be returned to every candidate or party that submits its campaign report correctly and on time, regardless of the election result, ERR reported.

The EKRE parliamentary group has proposed setting the deposit for parliamentary elections by the subsistence threshold rather than the minimum monthly wage. Under its proposal, the deposit would fall from 946 euros to 220 euros per candidate and from 118,250 euros to 27,500 euros for a full list.

The Greens said the deposit had risen without a substantive decision on candidacy rules. It was 500 euros per candidate in the 2019 elections and is set to be 946 euros for the 2027 elections. Party council chairman Marti Soosaar said the increase of nearly 90 percent in eight years was due solely to the rise in the minimum wage. Linking the deposit to the subsistence threshold, he said, would bring it closer to the level intended to deter clearly unserious lists without making candidacy dependent on wealth.

The party also said the current rules favour parties already represented in parliament, while deposits become a participation fee for smaller parties. Under the existing system, a deposit is refunded only if a party receives at least five percent of the nationwide vote, a candidate is elected, or a candidate receives at least half the simple quota in their electoral district. Other deposits go to state revenue.

The Greens lost 62,500 euros in deposits in the 2019 elections. They propose instead tying refunds to whether a party or independent candidate meets their legal obligations by filing a campaign report with the Political Party Financing Supervision Committee correctly and on time. The Greens say this would preserve the requirement to pay the deposit in advance and file a report, while removing the financial penalty for failing to win votes.

Soosaar said the European Court of Justice had ruled this year, following a complaint by the Greens, that the amount of deposits for European Parliament elections and the rules for refunding them must not create an excessive obstacle for new political forces. The case is now before Estonia’s Supreme Court. The Chancellor of Justice’s office has told the court that, if the deposit is found to be excessive, the most constitutionally consistent solution would be to invalidate all provisions concerning it.

Parliamentary elections are scheduled for March 7, and the deadline for submitting candidates is January 21. Soosaar called on parliamentary groups to support the EKRE bill and, if possible, amend it to change the refund rules.