"Candidates for local election committees can be presented until 6 p.m. on Tuesday (September 7) and any possible errors need to be corrected in the candidates' documentation by the same time on Thursday," state electoral committee voting services manager Arne Koitmäe told ERR on Monday.

By Sunday (September 12) at the latest, municipality and city election committees will register candidates with correctly presented documents and will also organize a draw for the queue of lists and individual candidates, which will provide all candidates a registration number.

This process involves putting labels of all voting lists in closed envelopes and the order in which they are opened will provide them with their registration numbers, Koitmäe noted. The same will be done for individual candidates, whose registration numbers will be drawn after voting lists.

If a person decides to drop out of running before this and lets the electoral committee know beforehand, their name is withdrawn ahead of time. If they, however, decide to drop out three days after their candidacy is officially initiated, their registration number will be left unused. Candidates cannot be removed from lists after three days have passed.

Responding to a question about people possibly running in multiple regions, Koitmäe said this will be ensured by the election information system, since each candidate's personal identification number will be entered.

Koitmäe said there have been 130 electoral bloc lists presented in addition to political party election lists but that number will surely see an increase in the coming days. There are 79 local government units in Estonia - 15 cities and 64 municipalities.

Currently, no complaints have been issued for the electoral committee, Koitmäe noted.

By Wednesday, parties and electoral blocs participating in the elections can present a candidate to the municipality or city secretary. Unlike Riigikogu and European Parliament elections, candidates do not have to pay a deposit.

Local government elections will begin with a chance to vote ahead of time from noon on October 11. On election day, October 17, voting will take place from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. An electronic vote can be changed by voting with a physical ballot.

See more on ERR News' 2021 Elections page.

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