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Parliamentary elections were held in Estonia on 14 and 15 July 1940 alongside simultaneous elections in Latvia and Lithuania. The elections followed the Soviet occupation of the three countries. As was the case in Latvia and Lithuania, the elections in Estonia were blatantly rigged.[1][2] They were also unconstitutional, since only seats for the lower chamber of the Riigikogu, the Chamber of Deputies (Riigivolikogu), were contested; the upper chamber, the National Council, had been dissolved and was never reconvened. According to August Rei, one of independent Estonia's last envoys to Moscow, under the Estonian constitution, the Chamber of Deputies had "no legislative power" apart from the National Council.[3]
The Estonian Working People's Union, a Communist front group, was the only party allowed to run and won all 80 seats, allegedly with 93% of the votes cast and the remaining 7% having been declared invalid. The newly elected Chamber of Deputies declared the Estonian SSR on 21 July and requested admission to the Soviet Union the following day. The request was approved by the Soviet government on 6 August.[4]
- ^ Elections of the lower chamber of the parliament and establishing the Soviet order in Estonia in 1940 Estonica
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
M1was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Marek, Krystyna (1968). Identity and Continuity of States in Public International Law. Librairie Droz. p. 386. ISBN 9782600040440.
- ^ The Soviet Era, 1940-85 Library of Congress Country Studies