Estonian parliamentary election, 2007

Last updated
Estonian parliamentary election, 2007
Flag of Estonia.svg
  2003 4 March 2007 2011  

101 seats in the Riigikogu
51 seats were needed for a majority

  First party Second party Third party
  Portrait Andrus Ansip.jpg Edgar Savisaar 2005-crop.jpg IRL Tonis Lukas.jpg
Leader Andrus Ansip Edgar Savisaar Tõnis Lukas and Taavi Veskimägi
Party Reform Centre Pro Patria and Res Publica
Last election 19 seats 28 seats 32 seats
Seats won 31 29 19
Seat changeIncrease2.svg12Increase2.svg1Decrease2.svg10
Popular vote 153,044 143,518 98,347
Percentage 27.8% 26.1% 17.9%

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
  Ivari Padar MEP 01.JPG Lotman, Aleksei (cropped).jpg KE Ester Tuiksoo.jpg
Leader Ivari Padar Aleksei Lotman Ester Tuiksoo
Party Social Democratic Greens People's Union
Last election 6 seats did not participate 13 seats
Seats won 10 6 6
Seat changeIncrease2.svg4Increase2.svg6Decrease2.svg7
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% Estonia2007 by municipality.png
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.

Estonia Republic in Northern Europe

Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland with Finland on the other side, to the west by the Baltic Sea with Sweden on the other side, to the south by Latvia (343 km), and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia (338.6 km). The territory of Estonia consists of a mainland and 2,222 islands in the Baltic Sea, covering a total area of 45,227 km2 (17,462 sq mi), water 2,839 km2 (1,096 sq mi), land area 42,388 km2 (16,366 sq mi), and is influenced by a humid continental climate. The official language of the country, Estonian, is the second most spoken Finnic language.

Electronic voting is voting that uses electronic means to either aid or take care of casting and counting votes.

Internet Global system of connected computer networks

The Internet is the global system of interconnected computer networks that use the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link devices worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, telephony, and file sharing. Some publications no longer capitalize "internet".

Contents

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.

Estonian Reform Party political party from Estonia

The Estonian Reform Party is a liberal political party in Estonia. The party is led by Kaja Kallas and has 34 members in the 101-member Riigikogu, making it the largest party in the legislature.

Riigikogu parliament of Estonia

The Riigikogu is the unicameral parliament of Estonia. All important state-related questions pass through the Riigikogu. In addition to approving legislation, the Riigikogu appoints high officials, including the Prime Minister and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and elects the President. The Riigikogu also ratifies significant foreign treaties that impose military and proprietary obligations, bring about changes in law, etc.; approves the budget presented by the government as law and monitors the executive power.

Estonian Centre Party political party in Estonia

The Estonian Centre Party is a centrist, social-liberal, populist political party in Estonia. It is one of the two largest political parties in Estonia and currently has 26 seats in the Estonian Parliament. The Party is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE).

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]

Edgar Savisaar Estonian politician

Edgar Savisaar is an Estonian politician, one of the founding members of Popular Front of Estonia and the Centre Party. He has served as the acting Prime Minister of Estonia, Minister of the Interior, Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications and Mayor of Tallinn.

Vladimir Putin Russian politician, 2nd and 4th President of Russia

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer serving as President of Russia since 2012, previously holding the position from 2000 until 2008. In between his presidential terms he was also the Prime Minister of Russia under his close associate Dmitry Medvedev.

United Russia political party in Russia

United Russia is the ruling political party of the Russian Federation. United Russia is the largest party in Russia and as of 2018 it holds 335 of the 450 seats in the State Duma.

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.

Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a party's candidates are elected. This as opposed to closed list, which allows only active members, party officials, or consultants to determine the order of its candidates and gives the general voter no influence at all on the position of the candidates placed on the party list. Additionally, an open list system allows voters to select individuals rather than parties. Different systems give voter different amounts of influence. Voter's choice is usually called preference vote.

Proportional representation (PR) characterizes electoral systems in which divisions in an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. If n% of the electorate support a particular political party, then roughly n% of seats will be won by that party. The essence of such systems is that all votes contribute to the result - not just a plurality, or a bare majority. The most prevalent forms of proportional representation all require the use of multiple-member voting districts, as it is not possible to fill a single seat in a proportional manner. In fact, the implementations of PR that achieve the highest levels of proportionality tend to include districts with large numbers of seats.

The electoral threshold is the minimum share of the primary vote which a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to any representation in a legislature. This limit can operate in various ways. For example, in party-list proportional representation systems an election threshold requires that a party must receive a specified minimum percentage of votes, either nationally or in a particular electoral district, to obtain any seats in the legislature. In multi-member constituencies using preferential voting, besides the electoral threshold, to be awarded a seat, a candidate is also required to achieve a quota, either on the primary vote or after distribution of preferences, which depends on the number of members to be return from a constituency.

Seats by electoral district

District numberElectoral DistrictSeats
1 Haabersti, Põhja-Tallinn and Kristiine districts in Tallinn 8
2 Kesklinn, Lasnamäe and Pirita districts in Tallinn 11
3Mustamäe and Nõmme districts in Tallinn8
4Harjumaa (without Tallinn) and Raplamaa counties13
5Hiiumaa, Läänemaa and Saaremaa counties7
6Lääne-Virumaa county6
7Ida-Virumaa county8
8Järvamaa and Viljandimaa counties8
9Jõgevamaa and Tartumaa counties (without Tartu)7
10Tartu city8
11Võrumaa, Valgamaa and Põlvamaa counties9
12Pärnumaa county8

Results

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Estonian Reform Party 153,04427.831+12
Estonian Centre Party 143,51826.129+1
Pro Patria and Res Publica Union 98,34717.919–16
Social Democratic Party 58,36310.610+4
Estonian Greens 39,2797.16New
People's Union of Estonia 39,2157.16–7
Party of Estonian Christian Democrats 9,4561.700
Constitution Party 5,4641.000
Estonian Independence Party 1,2730.200
Russian Party in Estonia 1,0840.200
Estonian Left Party 6070.100
Independents5630.100
Invalid/blank votes5,250
Total555,4631001010
Registered voters/turnout897,24361.9
Source: Nohlen & Stöver, [5] IPU

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References