2007 Estonian parliamentary election

2007 Estonian parliamentary election

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101 seats in the Riigikogu 51 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Andrus Ansip Edgar Savisaar Tõnis Lukas and Taavi Veskimägi Party Reform Centre Pro Patria and Res Publica Leader's seat Harju and Rapla Kesklinn, Lasnamäe and Pirita Tartu and Harju and Rapla Last election 19 seats 28 seats 32 seats Seats won 31 29 19 Seat change 12 1 10 Popular vote 153,044 143,518 98,347 Percentage 27.8% 26.1% 17.9%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Ivari Padar Aleksei Lotman Ester Tuiksoo Party Social Democratic Greens People's Union Leader's seat Võru, Valga and Põlva Hiiu, Lääne and Saare Võru, Valga and Põlva Last election 6 seats did not participate 13 seats Seats won 10 6 6 Seat change 4 6 7 Popular vote 58,363 39,279 39,215 Percentage 10.6% 7.1% 7.1%
Prime Minister before election Andrus Ansip Reform Elected Prime Minister Andrus Ansip Reform

Leading party by municipality:

ERE	EKE	IM/RP	SDE	EMRL
20–29%   30–39%   40–49%   50–59%	20–29%   30–39%   40–49%   50–59%   60–69%   70–79%	20–29%   30–39%   40–49%   50–59%	20–29%   30–39%   40–49%   50–59%	20–29%   30–39%   40–49%   50–59%   60–69%   80–89%

Parliamentary elections were held in Estonia on 4 March 2007. It was the world's first nationwide vote where part of the voting was carried out in the form of remote electronic voting via the internet.

The election saw the Estonian Reform Party emerged as the largest faction in the Riigikogu with 31 seats. The Estonian Centre Party finished second with 29 seats, whilst the new Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica lost 16 seats compared to the 35 won by the two parties in the 2003 elections. The Social Democrats gained 4 seats, whilst the Greens entered the Riigikogu for the first time with 7 seats and the People's Union lost seven of its 13 seats.

Background[]

The Centre Party, led by the mayor of Tallinn Edgar Savisaar, had been increasingly excluded from collaboration, since his open collaboration with Putin's United Russia party, real estate scandals in Tallinn,^[1] and the Bronze Soldier controversy, considered as a deliberate attempt to split Estonian society by provoking the Russian minority.^[2]

Electoral system[]

In 2007 Estonia held its and the world's first national Internet election. Voting was available from February 26 to 28.^[3] A total of 30,275 citizens (3.4%) used Internet voting.^[4]

Electronic voting in Estonia began in October 2005 local elections when Estonia became the first country to have legally binding general elections using the Internet as a means of casting the vote and was declared a success by the Estonian election officials.

The electoral system was a two-tier semi-open list proportional representation system with a 5% (27,510.65 votes) election threshold.

Seats by electoral district[]

Results[]

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Estonian Reform Party	153,044	27.82	31	+12
	Estonian Centre Party	143,518	26.08	29	+1
	Pro Patria and Res Publica Union	98,347	17.87	19	–16
	Social Democratic Party	58,363	10.61	10	+4
	Estonian Greens	39,279	7.14	6	New
	People's Union of Estonia	39,215	7.13	6	–7
	Party of Estonian Christian Democrats	9,456	1.72	0	0
	Constitution Party	5,464	0.99	0	0
	Estonian Independence Party	1,273	0.23	0	0
	Russian Party in Estonia	1,084	0.20	0	0
	Estonian Left Party	607	0.11	0	0
	Independents	563	0.10	0	0
Total		550,213	100.00	101	0
Valid votes		550,213	99.05
Invalid/blank votes		5,250	0.95
Total votes		555,463	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		897,243	61.91
Source: Nohlen & Stöver,[5] IPU

References[]

External links[]

• Opinion Polls
• Estonia European Election Database