Lasnamäe is Edgar Savisaar’s political bedrock. He broke several records here, gathering more personal votes for himself than any other politician anywhere in the country. MEP and Center Party leadership member Yana Toom told ERR on Tuesday that reinstating him as the local section’s number one was one of the issues currently being negotiated.

While prime minister and party chairman Jüri Ratas, along with a majority of the party’s leadership, see it as a risk to allow members to run on non-party lists, Toom along with Center politician Olga Ivanova want the freedom to do just that.

The current list leader for Lasnamäe is Tallinn deputy mayor Mihhail Kõlvart. Toom told ERR that she was sure Kõlvart wouldn’t feel insulted if his name was replaced with Savisaar’s, but didn’t want to confirm that such a step had been discussed with him. She added that Savisaar would gather a very large number of votes even if he ran further down the list.

Though Savisaar’s role was an issue, Toom insisted that it was certainly not the main thing currently negotiated. “That would be great, but it isn’t the main thing. We have a pretty long list of things we’d like to change, but we haven’t made it anywhere yet,” Toom said.

She added that it was her wish that everything would be on the table, so that there wouldn’t be any topics that were off limits.

Monday had indeed brought a few agreements, for instance that points that had so far only been part of the Tallinn campaign platform would be adopted by the Center Party at the national level.

Center MP Olga Ivanova told ERR’s Aktuaalne kaamera newscast on Monday that Savisaar would certainly be interested in being the party’s number one candidate in Lasnamäe. Secretary general Mihhail Korb, on the other hand, said that though Savisaar would likely get a high-ranking list position, the front runners were already in place.

The negotiations between the Center Party’s wings will continue this week, with several meetings planned.