Tallinn City Council elects representatives to electoral college
Ten electors for the Estonian presidential elections in the electoral college were chosen at Thursday's session of the Tallinn City Council. Of the ten representatives chosen today, six belong to the Center Party, two to the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union (IRL) and one each to the Reform and Social Democratic Parties (SDE).
The ten electors chosen to represent the capital city of Tallinn in the electoral college of the Estonian presidential elections are as follows (presented in order of nomination together with number of votes received and party membership):
Ants Leemets (8 votes, Reform)
Anto Liivat (6 votes, SDE)
Kalev Kallo (8 votes, Center)
Toivo Tootsen (7 votes, Center)
Leonid Mihhailov (7 votes, Center)
Margarita Tšernogorova (7 votes, Center)
Irina Antoniuk (7 votes, Center)
Enno Tamm (7 votes, Center)
Tarmo Kruusimäe (8 votes, IRL)
Madis Kübar (8 votes, IRL)
There has been some speculation in the media that the electoral college will not be able elect the next president of the Republic of Estonia and the vote will head back to the Riigikogu once more. Center Party faction leader Toivo Tootsen believed, however, that the electoral college will still manage to elect the country's next head of state.
"I have been in the electoral college a couple of times myself so [I know that] fairly sensible decisions are made there before the second round," he said. "It is possible to reach normal agreements there."
Tallinn's Center Party members have decided to unanimously support Center candidate Mailis Reps in the electoral college. Social Democrat Anto Liivat, however, said that discussions were still ongoing in his party.
"There are a number of good candidates," admitted Liivat. "There are also those for whom I will not raise my hand in vote. But Mailis Reps has made a very good impression during her campaign."
A total of 73 city councilmen participated in the elections of the capital city's representative electors. No invalid or faulty ballots were counted.
The electoral college for the election of the President of the Republic of Estonia is scheduled to convene on Saturday, Sept. 24 at 12 p.m. at the Estonia Concert Hall in Tallinn.
The electoral college will be comprised of 335 members, including all 101 MPs and 234 representatives of local government councils. Local governments have until Sept. 17 to choose their electors.
Editor: Editor: Aili Vahtla