Former Saare municipality mayor expresses desire to return to position
While electoral alliance Terve Saaremaa had announced alliance leader and current Saare municipality mayor Mikk Tuisk as its candidate for mayor going forward, former mayor Madis Kallas has also expressed interest in becoming mayor.
On Sunday evening, Kallas confirmed his desire due to a public mandate. Kallas took political responsibility for the coronavirus spread on Saaremaa in April last year and resigned as municipality mayor.
He told ERR on Monday that the public wants to see him return as mayor. "I have been asked since the start of the year. I have always doubted it, but that question has come up more and more in the last two months that we have been running as an alliance and discussing it with some people close to me over the weekend, I reached a decision. So many people are asking me to run, hopefully they still hold a good opinion about me and are ready to support me," Kallas said.
He added that there are no agreements within the alliance and said the candidate with the most support should become the municipality mayor.
"There are no prior agreements. Mikk Tuisk has a clear background, he has never participated in the local elections. I look at my previous results and hope that public support, like last time, will be there this time around. The voters will choose," Kallas said.
He received 1,053 votes in the last local government elections in 2017.
There are a total of 267 candidates running in Saare municipality and there are seven different lists. In addition to Terve Saaremaa, the current coalition of Reform Party and Center Party are represented, as are Isamaa, EKRE, Eesti 200 and the Estonian Greens.
Reform's mayoral candidate for Saare municipality is Jaanus Tamkivi, Center's candidate is Aivar Aru, Isamaa's candidate is Mart Maastik, EKRE's candidate is Kristjan Moora and Eesti 200's candidate is Koit Kelder.
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Editor: Kristjan Kallaste