Number of women MPs elected to Estonia's Riigikogu rises to 30 percent
A total of 30 women won seats at Sunday's Riigikogu election. This constitutes the best result for women in Riigikogu electoral history, even if it means 70 percent of MPs as elected are still men, at the 101-seat chamber.
The Reform Party, which won the largest number of seats by far, also has the largest roster of women MPs, at 13, at the XV Riigikogu, including Pipi-Liis Siemann (pictured), a former Mayor of Türi, elected to parliament for the first time.
They are followed by five women from Eesti 200, four apiece from the Center Party and the Social Democrats (SDE), three from EKRE, and one from Isamaa.
By proportion of the total number of seats won, SDE places highest – 44 percent of its elected MPs are women. Eesti 200 and Reform are next, on 36 percent and 35 percent respectively, while Center (25 percent) and Isamaa (13 percent) are below the overall Riigikogu figure by that indicator.
Twenty-eight women entered parliament after the 2019 elections, while in 2015 the figure was 24, meaning a trend for a growth here.
The forerunner to the modern day Riigikogu, the constituent assembly, which was in office 1919-1920 on the foundation of the First Estonian Republic had nine woman members, out of 120 in total.
Please note the final tally of MPs will be different, as government ministers and, for that matter, the prime minister, among holders of other political positions, do not sit in the Riigikogu.
The current, caretaker Reform/SDE/Isamaa coalition has six women ministers, plus the prime minister, Kaja Kallas.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte