Election campaigns

“Elections are about choosing sides, but inaugurations are about closing ranks” by Ted Kulongoski.

 In my opinion this years elections have gone really wrong. Elections should be about every party talking about their good sides and proving what they can do for the country.  But NO. They fight and argue. They compete who has the better election advertisements. Like for example the time when Keskerakond had these new green advertisements about the change and then the Isamaa and Respublika youngsters put those red stickers all over them. The stickers said that Keskerakond wasted 1,5 million kroons on this gossip. For me it is really immature how they talk lies about each other. And I don’t even want to vote.  

            About different election campaignsI liked the one where Keskerakond is going around the Estonia with the bus. This has never done before. Everybody who can’t come to the city or who has questions can ask them. I really like that they had thought about country people also. And of course it is a good way to gain more votes. http://www.postimees.ee/?id=115677

            Keskerakond also made a game for campaign. Against Andrus Ansip. Keskerakond spend tens of thousand kroons on this game. Many Estonians played this came. I think it was childish, but people who don’t like Ansip loved it. http://www.postimees.ee/?id=109678

            This year the elections have been really different. Parties have chosen many different styles of advertisements. The advertisements have cost a lot, but in my opinion they haven’t been effective. It has been just one big circus about who is better and who is not. 

Madli Vest

Politics and Municipal Elections

As we all know, elections in Estonia are not far and that´s the reason why I have chosen to bring up the importance of elections, because it is something that many of us are not concerned about. Why should we take part of this and why do we need changes?

First of all, I have to mention that the main concern related to elections is the fact that people think that elections do not make any difference. Although there are many people who do not find it reasonable to vote, they should think about the fact that there are only about 60% of people who do care ad it is definitely not enough. It is sad to think that only a little bit more than half of our population do care about our future. Second problem is the lack of knowledge – people are not aware of consequences which come with not taking part of voting. I think that all these election campaigns are an important part of informing people. Even if a person does not want to take part of voting, then after Keskerakonds´ campaigns against Reformierakond : “Nende poliitika hävitab töökohad!” - “Their politics destroy employment!” or “Nende poliitika peatas majanduskasvu!” – “Their politics stopped the economic growth” are pretty strong arguments and a person who passes this kind of advertisement cannot be disinterested about it.

We do need changes in our country. Let´ s ask ourselves: do we see Estonia as a perfect country with a perfect government and perfect politics? Even though you might not care, there is definitely a party you do not want to be in charge of our future. You can make a change, because if you do not, someone else does and you might not like it. Even if you would not like to see any changes means that you want things to stay the same. Everyone has its own opinion and it is wrong to think that it does not count. It does!

 

“Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.”

By George Jean Nathan

 

”Thinking is not to agree or disagree. That is voting.”

By Robert Frost

 

To see more about elections : http://www.vvk.ee/

 http://valimised2009.com/category/kohalikud-valimised-18-oktoober-2009/

Grethel Gahler

Kids School Lunches are getting away from the goverments budget cut down.

Most of the time from yesterday’s meeting took the new working law. In the middle of that ministers had a discussion to cut down the children’s school lunch money. Instead of that they decided to cut down the budget of family support money and police salaries, but this is not clear yet. These meetings are going to last a lot of time, because these decisions are not easy yet they have to be done. But most of the ministers were happy if they realized that the school lunches won’t get cut down. http://www.postimees.ee/?id=119470

Yesterday were most of the parent’s quite worried because politicians said that if they are going to cut down the budget they are going to take away the money support from schools to offer a cheaper lunch for the students. Estonian education minister was the one who was really opposite to that decision. At the end of the meeting they still didn’t touch the children’s school lunch money. As said in the article that it was a long discussion and it went reached almost in the next day. But I think that it was worth of that.

I think that it’s a good decision because as Estonian minister of education said ‘’Educational ministry won’t show no initiative on this, because I think that paying for the school lunches from the children is very important that the country will do that, because most of the homes are not able to give the lunch from home to children.’’ (http://www.postimees.ee/?id=119358) Lukas said that in the Postimees article on Thursday. And he was right. It’s not fair to cut down children’s lunch money that comes from the government. Because I think that they realize that the students can’t study if they are hungry and they have no money to buy the lunch from somewhere else. It is logical that it’s unfair for those people whose money is cut down but I think that they can manage better than children.

Martin Ilves

European Parliament Elections

Elections for European Parliament are taking place on June 4. – June 7. 2009. Many Estonian citizens are not sure, are they going to vote for the European Parliament. There are many reasons, why people do not do that, they are not familiar with these elections, they do not know about them, they are not interested, or they do not get much information about these elections. Also they may think, that their vote may not change anything. Most certainly, that kind of thinking is not right and all citizens should go to vote, and be the decider. In the European Parliament web-site, there are ten efficacious reasons, why vote on the European Parliament elections. Firstly, when you vote, you are the decider. You have the opportunity to decide the everyday life and future of more than 500 million european. Secondly, you make your voice heard. The member in European Parliament is the voice of yours, and it is important, that you make sure that your voice is heard. Thirdly, Parliament is interested of your well- being, so make sure, that you care about your well- being too. Of course the list goes on, for the more information, go to the European Parliament web- side, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/elections2009/default.htm?language=ET

European Parliament have been decided to call youth to vote through social media. There are special accounts, that are mostly ment for youth. They are offering suitable materials and opportunitys for youth, to get the necessary information. The main message, that this account in sending out is the influential importance and also they are reminding the dates that the elections are taking place. They have the account for example on the facebook http://www.facebook.com/europeanparliament , MySpace. Also they are planning to open a Internet campaign for the European Parliament elections. I think that it is very good idea, to open accounts on the different Internet web- sites. Because, young people are spending more time on the Internet, than for example reading newspapers. Also young people search more information on the Internet. So I find that this could be very successful and young people are thinking now more on the European Parliament elections, and they are more interested about them, because the information they need is much more available for them.

So do not thing twice, go to vote and make your voice heard in Europe.

Merilin Kaalma 

Estonian Government Crisis..

       Estonian Government is not in a very good place right now, as there are a lot of problematic discussions on the topic of balancing the expenses and profits of Estonia. As the local elections in October, as well as European elections, are coming up, a lot of politicians see it is a good chance to make them selves seem as good for the Nation as they can, and make others look bad. The opposition party’s, especially Keskerakond, are putting a lot of effort to it. Their goal is to make Reformierakond, who is doing their best to cut as many expenses they can, to save Estonia, look like they are trying to ruin the nation. They are trying to push the Government to crisis, to try to get to power.

       As Mart Laar has said: “Pushing Estonian Government into crisis will not help to create now jobs and keep the present ones.” He toned, in an interview in Äripäev, that at the moment, what Kerserakond is trying to do, is wrong, the Government should put all their efforts into trying to balance the national budget and creating new jobs. (http://www.ap3.ee/Default2.aspx?ArticleID=24239183-a39d-41c2-b0e6-8188b71a008f&ref=rss#continue). And up until now, Estonia has managed to be just one of the few countries in Europe, which is not in debt, but manages to cut expenses to say balanced.

      Luckily, Keskerakond’s plan to declare mistrust to Reformierakond, failed, in my opinion, because the rest of the politicians understood, that it would do nothing but bad to Estonia. Politologist Anu Toots said in an interview given to Postimees on May fifth, (http://www.postimees.ee/?id=115748), that the distrust will probably not go through, as most of the GOvernement and Estonian politicians support Reformierakond and the Social Democrats, and because of that wont go along with it. She said that maybe Keskerakond, will see, that the Government is doing their job well, as the social democrats have a new tax reform, and boths party’s are on the left side. But this did not happen, probably because of what she already said – personal relations, not similar views are what count in Estonian politics.

      So, to sum up, it is in the nations best interest, that the Mistrust did not go through, as the Government has a lot on their minds already. And maybe Anu Toots was right when saying: “Probably, as the Euro Parliament elections are coming up soon, Keskerakod was just trying to keep themselves on the map and in the publics mind. They are very experienced politicians and probably knew, that the mistrust would not go through in these conditions.”

 

Kristiina Viil

The Importance of Politics/Elections

The reason why I have chosen just this topic is the fact that I have never been related to politics and I have really never cared about it. My aim is to show how important is politics in our daily lives.
The activeness of selectionists have been 60% of the population during last years. It isn’t the worse number afterall, but it’s pretty sad to think that only a little bit more than 50% of Estonians are in charge of our future. Very small part of this 60% are university students, who should care the most about their future and their children, they should care more about their friends and relatives. It is wrong to think that our opinion doesn’t matter, because we are the ones who are the hope of our future.

The road we drive, the busses we use, the house we are going to school, the way how our school looks like, the parks we are using to take a walk – these are just few examples, but EVERYTHING is influenced by our government, by the people WE have or have not chosen to make important decisions related to our daily life. It’s completely wrong to think that elections do not make any difference. Even though some of us do not care about daily politics news, it is important to give your vote.

Grethel Gahler.

E-voting test for European parliamentary elections

Estonians taste buds are tickled by an e-voting test for European parliamentary elections offering them joke candidates such as the lonely hamburger and tiramisu.  The aim is to promote June 4-7 elections to the European Parliament, especially among young people.

Estonia's electoral committee hopes the test poll (available on the www.valimised.ee webpage from May 28 to June 3) will also bring out any possible errors in the new online voting system.

Online voters can change their vote as many times as they want up until the deadline but only their final vote will count.  If an e-voter also votes on paper at a polling station their electronic vote will be canceled.

Kaido Matson