The Reform Party, the Social Democratic Party (SDE), Isamaa and Eesti 200's regional Tallinn boards signed the new Tallinn coalition agreement on Saturday.

On the agenda for Sunday's extraordinary Tallinn City Council meeting were mayoral elections and the appointment of the members of the new city government.

Also on the agenda is an expression of no confidence against city council deputy chair Marek Jürgenson (Center).

Voting took place until 10:50 a.m., with the sitting slated to continue from 11:05 a.m., however a recess was announced immediately.

Before noon, voting committee chair Helve Särgava announced that ballots had been issued to 40 city council members, the same number of which were counted in the ballot box, however two of the ballots were invalid. As a result, Ossinovski, the new candidate for mayor, received just 38 votes, failing to be elected.

Put to a vote was the question of whether to conduct a new round of voting at the same city council sitting, and 38 of those in attendance were in favor, passing the decision.

City council members had 15 minutes to vote in the second round. Voting began at 12:03 p.m. and the sitting was scheduled to resume at 12:33 p.m., however following yet another delay, the recess was extended to 12:45 p.m.

In the second round, Ossinovski received 39 votes, coming still one vote short of being elected and prompting a third round of voting.

In the third round of voting, the SDE candidate Jevgeni Ossinovski secured 41 votes – enough to elect him the next mayor of Tallinn.

Dissatisfied with the result, Tallinn ex-mayor Mihhail Kõlvart lodged a protest on behalf of the Center Party, seeking for the third round of voting to be annulled over a claim that one city council member took a photo of their ballot, violating rules of procedure.

The city council decided with 41 votes, however, to reject the protest, confirming Ossinovski's election Sunday as mayor.

Candidates announced Saturday

The four incoming coalition parties announced their candidates for office in the new Tallinn City Government on Saturday, including Jevgeni Ossinovski (SDE) for mayor and Sander Andla (Reform) for city council chair.

Eesti 200's candidates included Aleksei Jašin for deputy mayor for education and Margot Roose for deputy mayor for business, and Isamaa's candidates were Kristjan Järvan for deputy mayor of transport and Karl Sander Kase for deputy mayor for social affairs.

Reform, meanwhile, proposed Pärtel-Peeter Pere for deputy mayor for urban environment and public works and Viljar Jaamu for deputy mayor for city property, while the Social Democrats nominated Madle Lippus for deputy mayor for urban planning and Kaarel Oja for deputy mayor for sports, culture and law enforcement.

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