Over 30,000 Estonians cast ballots online

ESTONIA:While Ireland's electronic voting system remains in cold storage, about one in 30 Estonian voters have cast their ballots online this week in the world's first parliamentary election to allow polling via the internet.

More than 30,000 of Estonia's 940,000 registered voters have already expressed their political preference on an official website, using technology that the Baltic state tested in local elections in 2005.

"We are happy with this number. I personally would not have expected so many electronic voters," said Epp Maaten, deputy head of the national electoral commission.

Voters simply placed their state-issued identification card, which contains an electronic chip, into a reader attached to a computer, and then entered two passwords.

Critics of the system said it was susceptible to identity fraud and attack by computer hackers, and feared that voters, casting their ballots outside the controlled environment of the polling station, could be pressured by employers to support certain parties.

However, after the success of the 2005 local elections - and a smooth dry run this month in which voters elected a "King of the Forest" from 10 candidate animals - officials said they were satisfied with the system.

"There have been no problems of any kind," said electoral commission spokesman Arne Koitmae on Wednesday night, hours before the end of the three-day e-voting period.

Estonia is one of the most "wired" countries in the world - like their neighbours in Scandinavia. Many Estonians regularly pay for travel and parking tickets with their mobile phones, are comfortable buying goods and doing bank transactions online, and are rarely outside wireless internet coverage.

The country is also a major European base for internet telephony firm Skype, which uses a system that Estonians helped develop.

Analysts say Estonia's proximity to tech-savvy Scandinavia, and its need to overhaul basic infrastructure after winning independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, encouraged successive governments to invest in high technology and make laws to foster internet use for business and pleasure.

And as the Irish Government wonders what to do with a €52-million (and rising) voting system that cannot be relied upon to be accurate or secure, experts say Estonia has spent very wisely in the technology market.

"We are a very small country in the EU, therefore we have to be very careful in spending our money on government infrastructure as it gives very little back," said computer systems and security specialist Jaan Murumets.

"E-voting is not so difficult to think about here. We are used to using the internet for business and for almost 10 years we have been using the internet for banking."

Polls suggest the two main groups in Estonia's current coalition government will dominate the election, but it is not clear whether the centre-right Reform Party or the left-leaning Centre Party will come out on top.