Riigikogu to announce elections of Estonia 100 Youth Assembly
As part of the Riigikogu’s open house day tomorrow Saturday, the elections of the Youth Assembly will be announced. 106 representatives will be elected to participate in various events throughout the year.
On Saturday the elections of the Youth Assembly (Noorte Maapäev) will be announced in the Session Hall of the Riigikogu as part of the Estonia 100 celebrations. The Youth Assembly will give school students the opportunity to imagine themselves as part of the events 100 years ago, and will help tell the story of independent Estonia by modern interactive means.
106 representatives will be elected, calculated on the basis of the procedure used a century ago as well as Estonia’s current population. Every town will receive a seat per 20,000 residents, while seats for counties will be calculated in a similar manner. The elections will be organised by the Estonian School Student Council.
The representatives will convene on July 14, on the 100th anniversary of the Provisional Assembly of Estonia (Maapäev). They will take part in the Opinion Festival held in Paide in August. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the declaration of the Provisional Assembly as the highest power, the Youth Assembly will convene on Nov. 28 in the Riigikogu to adopt a joint declaration.
Estonia’s parliamentary road to independence
On Apr. 12, 1917 a resolution of the Provisional Government of Estonia merged the predominantly Estonian-speaking counties of the Governorate of Livonia with the Governorate of Estonia, forming an autonomous new governorate based on ethnicity, by and large delineating the territory that today is Estonia.
The resolution laid the foundation for the Provisional Assembly, which united representatives of the counties and towns of the Governorate of Estonia. This was the first national assembly democratically elected by Estonians; it passed a number of major decisions on Estonia’s journey towards national independence.
The Provisional Assembly of Estonia first convened at Toompea Castle on July 14, 1917. This was also where the council declared itself the highest power in Estonia, which was considered the actual founding document of Estonia’s national independence. This laid the ground for the eventual birth of the Republic of Estonia in a manifesto of the Salvation Committee on Feb. 24, 1918.
Editor: Dario Cavegn
