Estonia's presidents are not directly elected, and instead are voted on by the Riigikogu in the first instance.

The current XV Riigikogu will need to elect Estonia's next head of state in 2026, as current incumbent Alar Karis' five-year term ends. Karis is eligible for a second term.

The coalition is only just short of the 68 votes required (ie. just over two-thirds) at the 101-seat Riigikogu to elect a president.

At the same time, finding a common candidate amenable to the Reform Party, the Social Democrats (SDE) and Eesti 200, so far appears to be a challenge.

Riigikogu Speaker Lauri Hussar (Eesti 200) told "Aktuaalne kaamera": "Today in the coalition, there hasn't been such a discussion, and the coalition consists of three parties. It can be assumed that each of the three holds its own opinion on who should be Estonia's next president."

While coalition agreements also often include a framework for the next presidential election, in the case of the Reform-SDE-Eesti 200 agreement drafted in the summer, this has not been the case, Reform MP Maris Lauri said.

Lauri added she considers it unlikely that the candidate would come from the Reform Party, since it already holds several key positions.

"As the president is one of the balancing forces for different political situations, it might not be a very good look. At the same time, we can never rule anything out," Lauri said.

Hussar on the other hand said that names have been circulating in the back corridors, but declined to state any publicly.

Not so Isamaa MP Helir-Valdor Seeder, who said that there "has indeed been talk in the corridors about Andrus Ansip's candidacy," adding that he "didn't know if there's any truth to it."

Ansip was prime minister 2005 to 2014.

Seeder added that if Alar Karis would be a serious candidate too, were he to seek a second term – "though he has said himself that he is not a 'two-term man'," Seeder noted.

Hussar addressed issue of the presidential election at his RIigikogu autumn session opening speech.

He also said the law governing the presidential election needs to be amended, for instance to give the Riigikogu the opportunity to quiz presidential candidates.

More time should be allocated for debates between registered candidates ahead of the election, he added.

Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) leader Martin Helme meanwhile said that "names are being thrown around, first, to test the waters and second, as a typical Reform Party tactic, to instill some fear, perhaps with the current sitting president, to suggest that if you're not an amenable partner for the government, we could find someone else."

While the presidential elections are not until 2026, next year, 2025, brings the local elections in the fall.

The two elections are linked to the extent that in cases where the Riigikogu is unable to elect a unified candidate, the matter passes to an electoral college made up of regional representatives, which convenes in Tallinn. This last happened in 2016, during the election process which led to Kersti Kaljulaid becoming head of state – Kaljulaid was not chosen by the electoral college but at the final stage, by the Riigikogu's council of elders.

There is also no decision yet on whether Russian citizens will retain the right to vote in local elections.

That presidents are not elected directly by the people relates to a desire to avoid over-politicization of what is a mainly ceremonial role, including in relation to the Russian-speaking populace of Estonia and who they might vote for.

The 2021 presidential election saw Alar Karis elected as the president of Estonia with a two thirds majority of 72 votes in the Riigikogu, after two rounds of voting. No one ran against him.

Presidents are eligible for two terms in total, consecutive or non-consecutive. Estonia's presidents since the restoration of independence in 1991 have been: Lennart Meri (1992-2001), Arnold Rüütel (2001-2006), Toomas Hendrik Ilves (2006-2016), Kersti Kaljulaid (2016-2021) and Alar Karis (2021-present). Despite talk of the politicization of the role, no former prime minister has been elected president since the restoration of independence (Meri and Ilves were both former government ministers).

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