---
name: election-results-data
description: Download official Estonian election-result XML archives and retrieve National Electoral Committee decisions.
module: valimised.mjs
execution: get
---

# Election Results and Decisions

The Riigi Valimisteenistus publishes each election on its own site
(`https://<code><year>.valimised.ee`) with a public JSON API behind it, and the
elections before 2021 as ZIP/XML archives. No authentication.

## Retrieve

**Use the module below — do not assemble the resource paths by hand.** The file
name a result is keyed by differs by election type and area level, and guessing
it returns a 404 that reads exactly like "this place has no result".

```js
const r = await electionResult("rk2023");
show(r.totals);            // { votes, mandates, parties, eligibleVoters, turnoutPct }
show(r.rows.slice(0, 6));  // party, votes, sharePct, mandates, previousMandates

const who = await electedMembers("rk2023");
show(who.totals);          // { elected: 101, byParty: { … } }
```

`election` accepts `"rk2023"`, `"Riigikogu 2023"` or `"kohalikud valimised
2021"`. A year with no result site throws naming the ones that exist — it never
falls back to the newest election of that type.

`area` is a code or a name from `electionAreas(election)`. For a Riigikogu
election that is one of the 12 electoral districts; for a KOV election it is a
county, Tallinn/Tartu, or a municipality keyed by **its county's code and its
own** (`0037-0141`, Anija vald). A bare `0141` is a 404, so pass the row's
`code` or simply the name.

## What each election actually publishes

Re-checked live by `elections()`, because it varies:

| Site | Results | Elected members | Turnout |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `rk2023` | yes | yes (`elected-members`) | yes |
| `kov2025`, `kov2021` | yes, incl. elected councillors per municipality | inside the result | yes |
| `ep2024` | **no** — the host is up and only the result files are missing | no | no |

Elections before 2021 have **no JSON to read, and their sites are not gone** —
corrected 2026-08-02, when this guide still called all three of them dead.
`rk2019`, `ep2019` and `kov2017` all answer 200, and the first two still
publish their results as HTML:
`https://rk2019.valimised.ee/et/election-result/election-result.html` and
`https://ep2019.valimised.ee/et/election-result/index.html`, with
`https://ep2019.valimised.ee/et/elected-members/index.html` for who won.
`kov2017.valimised.ee` serves only its candidate application, at
`/kandidaadid`. What is missing is the JSON the 2021+ sites expose:
`rk2019.valimised.ee/resources/election-result/data.json` answers HTTP 404, so
`electionResult()` cannot read these elections. `rk2015.valimised.ee` presents
an **expired certificate**.

```probe-limit
claim `rk2019.valimised.ee/resources/election-result/data.json` answers HTTP 404
# The certificate first: a dead certificate is a transport failure, so it has no
# status or body to assert alongside.
GET https://rk2015.valimised.ee/
expect-error /CERT_HAS_EXPIRED/
GET https://rk2019.valimised.ee/resources/election-result/data.json
expect-status 404
expect /Viga 404/
# The control is the SAME resource path on a site that does publish it. Without
# it, valimised.ee 404-ing everything would confirm this claim while the two
# elections we actually read had gone dark.
control GET https://rk2023.valimised.ee/resources/election-result/data.json
```

For a machine-readable result use the ZIP/XML archives — `elections()` lists
them off `https://www.valimised.ee/en/archive/open-data-estonian-elections`,
and `fileText()` reads one. Read the HTML pages above when the archive does not
answer the question.

## Committee decisions

Numerical results and VVK decisions are different things and must not be mixed.
For decisions use the official list at
`https://www.valimised.ee/et/korraldajad/vabariigi-valimiskomisjon/otsused`, and
cross-reference Riigi Teataja when legal publication matters:
`https://www.riigiteataja.ee/algteksti_tulemused.html?doli=otsus&valj1=Vabariigi+Valimiskomisjon&kuvaKoik=true&sorteeri=kuupaev&kasvav=false`.

## Return

- State counts from `totals`, summed in code over every party.
  `totals.statedVotes` is the site's own figure alongside it — when the two
  differ, say so rather than choosing.
- A **Riigikogu district file reports votes only**: seats are allocated
  nationally, so `mandates` is `null` there rather than 0, and the `note` says
  where to get them.
- Elected people are named: they hold public office and that is the result.
  Their birth dates are in the payload and deliberately not returned.
- Cite `source` (the JSON fetched) and `page` (the election site).

## Limits

- Results are published after declaration; this is not a live feed.
- XML schemas and territorial units differ between election years.
- Turnout for an area comes from a different file than the result, and its
  table lists e-votes and out-of-district votes as EXTRA rows — summing that
  column gave one Tallinn district 91.9% where the committee published 61.8%.
  The module reads the published total instead.

## Verify

`metadata.json` on the same host identifies the election (`electionCode`,
`electionType`, `electionYear`) — confirmed for `rk2023`, `kov2025`, `kov2021`
and `ep2024`. Require a non-empty `units` array before reporting any result,
and reject an HTML error page even when the requested name ends in `.zip`.


## Module API
electionResult(election, {area}) -> {source, page, election, area, generated, counted, totals, rows, note}
electedMembers(election, {area}) -> {source, page, election, area, totals, rows, note}
electionAreas(election) -> {source, page, election, totals, rows, note}