Democracy is important - even more so during this crisis
Edited on
23 April 2020To fight against COVID-19, most countries, including Estonia, have banned all events and gatherings. This means that city and municipality councils cannot have face-to-face meetings of elected City Councillors either.
Tartu City Council will have its first official e-City-Council-meeting today (April 23rd), using two pieces of software: web conference app Zoom and VOLI – electronic voting software developed by the City of Tartu. To vote electronically, the Councillor identifies themself with a national ID-card, Smart-ID or Mobile-ID (all widely used among Estonians).
The council meeting in March, in the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, was cancelled in Tartu. Since then, thorough preparations have been carried out to guarantee that every council member has an equal opportunity to participate and vote in council e-meetings. There have been several test council meetings and the security issues of Zoom have been considered carefully. As the council e-meeting is public, there is a live stream in the YouTube channel of the City of Tartu, just like during regular council meetings.
The city of Tartu takes the viewpoint that nobody can predict the duration of the current emergency situation or future crisis, but despite that, we need to find ways to make democracy function at the local level.
The live stream of the e-City-Council-meeting will start at 3 pm EEST on the YouTube channel of the City of Tartu. Live video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Miz9L6sDg3A
Submitted by Madli-Johanna Maidla on