Description of Electoral System:

(courtesy of IFES election guide)

The President is elected by parliament to serve a 5-year term. In the Parliament (Riigikogu) 101 members are elected by popular vote to serve 4-year terms.

Past Elections

Parliamentary - 2007

In 2008 parliamentary elections took place in Estonia on the 4th March, to elect 101 members of the Riigikogu (Parliament). Nearly 940,000 Estonians were eligible to vote (out of 1,340,415). MPs were elected on proportional party lists, among parties polling at least 5% (27,510.65 votes) of the national vote.

Citizens could cast their votes in 3 possible ways: go to any one of the 133 polling stations, vote early or by post. It was the world's first nationwide vote where part of the vote casting was allowed in the form of remote electronic voting via the Internet.

Detailed results as well as other information concerning Parliamentary Elections 2007 can be found here. (Source: Electoral Commission of the Republic of Estonia)

Presidential - 2006

“The President of the Republic shall be elected by the Riigikogu by default. The right to nominate a candidate rests with not less than one-fifth of the membership of Riigikogu. A candidate in favour of whom a two-thirds majority of the membership of the Riigikogu votes shall be considered elected. If this is not the case, then new candidates shall be nominated and there will be a second round of voting. When no candidate receives the required number of votes, there will be a third round of voting, this time between the two candidates that received the greatest number of votes. A two-thirds majority of votes is required in both rounds to be elected. When the President of the Republic is still not elected in the third round of voting, an electoral body is convened.” (source: Estonian National Electoral Committee)

The Electoral Body that elects the president of Estonia consists of the members of the Riigikogu and representatives of the local government councils. In this case, the president is elected by achieving the majority of the votes.

In the first vote on the 28th August, Ms. Ene Ergma did not achieve the demanded two-thirds majority of votes, therefore new candidate was nominated – Mr. Toomas Hendrik Ilves.

Finally Toomas Hendrik Ilves was elected the President of the Republic of Estonia after gaining 174 among 345 votes from the Electoral Body members.