According to these results, the Reform Party received 32% of the vote and won 38 mandates in the 101-member Estonian Parliament in Riga.
The right-wing Estonian Conservative People’s Party (EKRE) came in second with 16% of the vote and 17 mandates.
The third largest number of votes was received by the Center Party, which is traditionally more supported by Estonian Russian-speaking voters. 14% of voters voted for this party, which will provide the party with 15 mandates in the parliament.
The Center Party, which once had a cooperation agreement with the Kremlin’s “United Russia” party, found itself in a difficult situation this time, as the party’s leadership expressed strong support for Ukraine, which some voters might not like. However, unlike Latvia, where the “Saskaņa” party was unexpectedly left out of the Saeima in a similar situation last year, the Center party has retained relatively large support.
Three more parties have overcome the 5% barrier to enter the Estonian parliament: the liberal “Estonia 200”, the national conservative “Motherland” and the Social Democratic Party.
“Estonia 200”, which until now was not represented in the parliament, achieved very good success, receiving 13.6% of the vote, which could provide the party with 14 mandates.
According to the preliminary results, the Estonian Social Democrats won 9.4% of the vote and nine mandates in the parliament. “Tēvzeme” had an unexpectedly weak performance, which received 8.3% of the vote and could claim eight mandates.
There are 101 members in the Estonian Parliament in Riga; deputies are elected for a four-year term.
At least 51 votes are needed to form a majority government. The current ruling coalition consisted of three parties: the Reform Party led by Prime Minister Kallas, the “Patriots” and the Social Democrats.
The fact that the party won the most mandates in the parliament does not mean that it will have the opportunity to form the new government. This was the situation after the previous Estonian parliamentary elections in 2019, when the Reform Party also received the most votes. However, the government was formed by the leader of the Center Party, Jiri Ratas, who agreed on a coalition for EKRE and “Tēvzeme”.
This government worked until January 2021, when Ratas lost the position of prime minister. The next government was formed by the coalition of the Reform Party and the Center Party under the leadership of Prime Minister Kallas. Last summer, this coalition fell apart, but Kallas formed a new government with “patriots” and social democrats.
The high support for the Reform Party can be explained by the popularity of Prime Minister Kallas. She is very visible in Europe, talking directly about the need to support Ukraine and strengthen sanctions against Russia. Kallas is regularly quoted by the world’s most influential media.
In Estonia, in this pre-election campaign, the main focus was on national security issues, taking into account Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Kremlin’s threats to the security of neighboring countries.
However, there was also a lot of talk about the economy and the cost of living, because the Estonian economy is in recession, and the inflation rate is one of the highest in Europe.
Voter turnout was quite high this time. Estonia is known as the first country in the world that started offering voters the opportunity to vote electronically. This time, more than half of the voters made their choice electronically, instead of at the polling station.
According to the data published by the Estonian National Election Commission, around 615,000 or 63.7% of eligible citizens participated in the elections. Also in the previous parliamentary elections in 2019, 63.7% of eligible voters participated.
Estonia, national parliament election today:
Turnout at 19:00 CET (20:00 EET) (Polls have closed)
…
2011: 63.5%
2015: 64.2%
2019: 63.7%
2023: 63.7%Source: National Electoral Committee#Estonia #Estonia #elections2023 pic.twitter.com/f8fylhUoCN
— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) March 5, 2023
More than 313,000 people took part in electronic voting, which closed on Saturday, a record number. The previous record was 247,000 e-voters, set four years ago.
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