“Ivanova has clearly placed herself outside the party, and it is understandable that a section chair can’t be a competitor of the party at the same time. Because of that Olga Ivanova can’t represent or head the section, and I believe that this matter will soon be settled,” Korb told BNS.

However, Korb said he first and foremost expected participants of competing election blocks to be honest to themselves, the party, and the voters—and to leave if there were conflicts between the different roles.

“Party members and the party leadership will definitely look at Ivanova’s activity in detail, and I believe that they will do so in the near future. Presumably after the submission of election lists on Sept. 5,” Korb added.

But Korb also stressed that there hadn’t been any calls to expel members of the Center Party who had decided to run as part of an independent election coalition.

“No such bid has been submitted. During the busiest time of the elections, the sections are understandably dealing with introducing the party’s program to the voters and compiling the lists, and not with competitors, and this is why the issue in question is not yet the main issue to be dealt with,” Korb said.

He added that if a similar proposal was made in any section, then the party leadership would definitely discuss it. “I believe that once the lists have been submitted on Sept. 5, the picture will be clearer to everyone.”

Ivanova is a member of the Riigikogu as well as the leadership of the Center Party. She is chairwoman of the party’s section in Tallinn’s Lasnamäe borough, but at the same time also one of the figureheads of the election coalition of suspended Tallinn mayor and former Center Party chairman Edgar Savisaar.

Center Party chairman and Prime Minister Jüri Ratas said at the beginning of August that Ivanova couldn’t continue in her dual role. “If the chair of one section runs on another list, then that person can’t continue chairing the section,” Ratas told the media then. He added that the leadership and deputy chairmen would take over the management of the section until its next annual meeting if that should happen.