Varia Ranah - Sorotan Ilmiah Perkhidmatan Awam

73 Varia Ranah: Sorotan Ilmiah Perkhidmatan Awam INTRODUCTION Estonia or officially known as the Republic of Estonia is a small country with the size of 45,227 square km and has an estimated population of 1.32 million i . Its capital city is Tallinn ii . Estonia, along with Latvia and Lithuania are known as the Baltic States. Since 1940 it was under the Soviet Union until 1991. After being recognised as an independent state in 1991, it adopted new political, economic, and social systems. This is inclusive of introducing the information and communication technology (ICT) in the state administrative matters, business, and social sphere. Only a small exclusive segment of the society knew about ICT when first implemented in early nineties. However, it is a strategic social engineering tool which turned the population to ‘e-society’ and put the country in world map. Estonia E-Government Initiatives There is a variety of e-government initiatives that the Estonian government have implemented since 1994. For this article, four of the most influential initiatives will be highlighted. Estonia has demonstrated that it strongly promotes democracy by conducting the ‘i-voting.’ Internet voting, or i-voting, is a system that allows voters to cast their ballots from any internet-connected computer anywhere in the world. During a designated pre-voting period, the voter logs onto the system using an ID-card or Mobile-ID and casts a ballot. The voter’s identity is removed from the ballot before it reaches the National Electoral Commission for counting, thereby ensuring anonymity. After being recognised as an independent state in 1991, it adopted new political, economic, and social systems 1 . with the introduction of (ICT) in the state administrative matters, business, and social sphere Magazine The New Yorker has dubbed Estonia as the ‘digital republic’