Urmas Paet is Reform Party's European elections lead candidate
Sitting MEP Urmas Paet is set to be the Reform Party's lead candidate at June's European Parliament election.
Reform's board has submitted for approval the full, nine-member list, ahead of this Sunday's party congress.
Party leader and Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said: "The Reform Party is heading into the European Parliament elections with a strong list. Our candidates are all competent, experienced, and experts in their fields."
"Voting for these individuals ensures that they will represent Estonia in the European Parliament wisely, substantively, and in a dignified manner, and will strongly advocate for issues important to Estonia," Kallas went on.
Each party may run a maximum of nine candidates at European elections, where Estonia is treated as one single electoral district, with nine mandates up for grabs.
In addition to Paet, a former foreign minister first elected to the Strasbourg/Brussels legislature in 2014, the top three on the provisional Reform Party list include MP Yoko Alender and former national IT tsar Luukas Kristjan Ilves, who joined the party last month.
Rounding off the provisional list are: Former Center Party MP Maria Jufereva-Skuratovski, Riigikogu Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Marko Mihkelson, MPs Hanah Lahe and Dr. Karmen Joller, plus Maarja Metstak, and Minister of Defense Hanno Pevkur.
Reform will confirm its finalized list at the party congress on Sunday. All parties need to have done so by mid-month.
Polling day in Estonia is Sunday, June 9, preceded by an advance voting period, when e-votes can be cast, from June 3.
Parties run ordered lists as per the regulations and, due to the nature of the d'Hondt-style proportional representation system used in all of Estonia's direct elections, much thought goes into the strategy of that order – with the candidates adjudged to attract the most votes placed high up on the list in the hope that their excess votes can help a candidate lower on the list to clinch a seat.
Reform currently has two MEPs, Paet, and Andrus Ansip; the latter has said he is not seeking re-election on June 9.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
