Social Democrats postpone decision who to support in electoral college
The Social Democratic leadership met on Monday to discuss possible scenarios for the presidential election on Sept. 24, but decided to leave the matter open for another week.
Chairman of the Social Democratic Party and Minister of Health and Labour Jevgeni Ossinovski said that the party would wait until all the electors would be known. The municipalities and city districts of Estonia are currently in the process of choosing their representatives for the electoral college.
Once the electors are known, the party would decide whether or not to enter the race with President of the Riigikogu Eiki Nestor as their candidate. The Social Democrats are expected to have some 50 votes in the college.
“Eiki Nestor is ready to go all the way with his candidacy and to become the president of Estonia, and he would be very good in that office,” Ossinovski said. He added that all the parties could nominate candidates, and that the question was rather how likely it was that they would manage to elect a candidate at all.
Referring to Marina Kaljurand’s candidacy, Ossinovski said that there were plenty of misleading points, and that the 40% support in the population of one particular candidate didn’t automatically translate into equivalent support in the electoral college.
Ossinovski said that the matter of the Reform Party’s support of candidates still caused confusion, and that it was difficult to outline the different options for the party as long as it wasn’t clear who Reform was going to support.
Asked about his candidacy, Eiki Nestor told ETV’s “Aktuaalne Kaamera” that there was still time and that it was too early for him to definitely say no.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn