Shadow Elections Largely Mirror Real Results

The Estonian National Youth Council released the results of their Shadow Elections, held online amongs Estonian youth aged 14-17 during the real election period.

The Shadow Elections were won, similarly to the real Parliamentary Elections, by the Reform Party, trailed closely by the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union and the Social Democrats. In contrast with the real election, where the Centre Party finished second, the Shadow Elections saw the Centre Party finish fifth, with 5.38% of the vote, right after the Estonian Greens who did not win any seats in the real parliament. In contrast with the real elections, the candidate with the most votes was the leader of the Social Democrats, Sven Mikser, known for his youthful image; the Centre Party chairman and political heavyweight Edgar Savisaar won the popular vote in the real elections.

2733 teenagers took part of the Shadow Elections, roughly 4.8% of the 14-17 population. By contrast 63% of the electorate voted in the Parliamentary Elections. Mailis Ostra, the Shadow Elections project leader considered the percentage “acceptable”, given that this was the pilot year for the project and that in comparison, during the first year of online voting, only 0.9% of the electorate chose to vote online. The Shadow Elections project involved over 50 public debates across the country, a national student competition on campaign ads, over 30 simulations of decision-making processes and an online voting simulation.  

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