Koos party seeks way to pay election deposit without bank account

Estonia’s Koos party is asking the National Electoral Committee for instructions on how to pay the election deposit for next year’s parliamentary elections after banks refused to open an account for it, ERR reported.

In a letter sent on September 15, the party said it still had no valid current account through which it could make payments. Koos said it wanted to participate in the parliamentary elections scheduled for March 7, 2027.

“The party has repeatedly approached banks with the aim of opening a current account, but has received negative responses,” said Igor Hopp, a member of the party’s board. He attached confirmations of the banks’ refusals.

The party said this had created a deadlock: it must pay a deposit to take part in the elections, but needs a bank account to make the payment. Without proof of payment, it cannot submit a complete set of documents for registering its candidates.

Koos asked the electoral committee to establish a specific, lawful and practically workable mechanism allowing it to meet the legal requirement despite being objectively unable to obtain a bank account.

“It is fundamentally important for us to receive practical instructions: what exactly must the Koos party do to pay the deposit, obtain proper confirmation of the payment and have its candidates accepted for registration in the 2027 parliamentary elections?” Hopp wrote.

Arne Koitmää, head of the State Electoral Office, previously said that under the Riigikogu Election Act, a party must transfer the required deposit to the Ministry of Finance’s bank account for each person submitted for registration before presenting its candidates.

A copy of the payment order proving that the deposit has been paid must be included among the documents, Koitmää said. “In practice, this presupposes the existence and use of a current account controlled by the party. The law does not provide alternative payment methods or special procedures,” he said.

Koitmää added that a third party may not pay the deposit on behalf of the party.

The Koos party was registered on May 8, 2023. It has 723 members, including Aivo Peterson, who is the party’s best-known member and has been convicted of treason in two court instances. According to a recent Norstat poll, the party had support of 1 percent.