Polling day is tomorrow, Sunday.

As of 8.15 a.m. Saturday, the state electoral service, the VVK, reported that voter turnout stood at 19.4 percent, with 189,644 votes cast since advance voting began on Monday morning.

This represented a rise of 5.6 percentage points from Friday morning's voter turnout figures.

Of the 189,644 total as of Saturday morning, 61.9 percent (117,367) were e-votes, which can only be cast during the advance period, while 72,277 were paper votes – 38.1 percent of the total well over double the total 44,928 cast as of 24 hours earlier.

Friday was the first day with all 377 polling stations open, a situation which continues Saturday and Sunday, which may also account for the rise in paper votes.

Tartu saw the highest turnout, at 27.9 percent, followed by Tallinn at 26.8 percent the remainder of Harju County (21.7 percent turnout) and the island of Hiiumaa (23.3 percent).

Ida-Viru County (15.1 percent), and Põlva and Võru counties (both 14.8 percent) were the areas which had seen the lowest turnout as of Saturday.

Turnout among Estonian voters resident outside of the country stood at 2.5 percent, the VVK said Saturday morning.

A total of 979,932 voters are eligible to vote at this year's European elections.

EU citizens permanently resident in Estonia are also eligible to vote.

For the purposes of European elections, Estonia is treated as one single electoral district, meaning voters can cast their ballots at any polling station nationwide.

Up until Friday, only select polling stations were open during the advance voting period, which began at the start of this week.

The full 377 polling stations opened at 12 p.m. Friday and closed at 8 p.m.

They will reopen at 12 p.m. today, Saturday, again closing at 8 p.m.

8 p.m. Saturday is also the point at which the e-vote closes for good, for this election. An e-vote may not be cast on polling day, Sunday.

On polling day itself, June 9, all polling stations are open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., when polls close.

The full list of polling stations is available here.

While e-votes cannot be cast on polling day, they can both be re-cast during the advance voting period, where necessary, and/or overruled with a paper vote.

This measure is in place primarily to avoid voter coercion, bribery, social pressure or other voter interference.

Those unable to attend a polling station for any legitimate reason may also order a home vote via their local municipality, who will arrange for VVK officials to attend their place of stay and to cast their vote on paper.

There are 78 candidates in Estonia chasing seven MEP seats. Estonia gained one European Parliament mandate post-Brexit, with the seventh mandate occupied following the 2019 elections.

The full list of candidates is here.

More detailed info is available from the VVK's site here, and from ERR News's overview here.

Final official voter turnout at the 2019 European elections in Estonia was 37.6 percent.

The results of the 2024 European Parliament elections in Estonia are due any time after midnight Sunday, after the final polling stations (reportedly in Italy) close.

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