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Anindirect election took place inEstonia in 2016 to elect thepresident of Estonia, who is the country'shead of state. TheRiigikogu — the Parliament of Estonia — electedKersti Kaljulaid to be the next head of state of Estonia to succeedToomas Hendrik Ilves, who had served his second and final term as president (as he wasterm-limited). Kaljulaid is the first female head of state of Estonia.
Somewhat unusually, Kaljulaid was elected president only after other candidates could not be elected in three rounds of parliamentary voting and two rounds of voting by an electoral college consisting of members of Parliament and representatives of local governments of Estonia.
By law, the president of Estonia is indirectly elected. The Riigikogu (Parliament) has the task of electing the president in the first instance. If no candidate received the required supermajority of two-thirds (68 votes out of 101), the president is selected by an electoral college consisting of MPs and representatives of local (municipal) governments. Failing that, the process is to return to the parliament yet again.[1]
The first three rounds of the election took place in the Riigikogu on 29 August 2016 (first round) and 30 August 2016 (second and third rounds). Since no candidate received the required supermajority in three balloting rounds, an electoral college convened on 24 September consisting of members of Riigikogu and representatives of Estonia's local governments.[2] The electoral college voted twice, but no candidate managed to reach an absolute majority of 168 votes.[3] Thus, the next round of the election returned to Riigikogu on 3 October.[3] The parliament electedKersti Kaljulaid, then the country's representative to theEuropean Court of Auditors, as the next President of Estonia.
The incumbent, PresidentToomas Hendrik Ilves, having served the maximum two terms, was not eligible to run for re-election.
| Candidates | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Allar Jõks IRL andEstonian Free Party Former Chancellor of Justice[4] |  Siim Kallas Reform Party Former Prime Minister and European Commissioner[5] |  Eiki Nestor Social Democratic Party,Reform Party Speaker of the Riigikogu[6] |  Mailis Reps Centre Party Member of Parliament, former Minister of Education[7] |
Candidates could be nominated by one-fifth of the members of Riigikogu (21 MPs).[8]
On 30 May 2016,Social Democratic Party endorsedEiki Nestor as the party's candidate, but lacked MPs to officially support the bid. Same day thePro Patria and Res Publica Union's Parliamentary Group endorsedAllar Jõks.[9] On 8 August, Jõks was also endorsed by theEstonian Free Party, after which he had enough backing for official candidacy.[4]
On 11 June 2016, with 53% of the votes the Centre Party electedMailis Reps as their presidential candidate, in preference toEdgar Savisaar.[7]
On 12 June 2016, theConservative People's Party of Estonia decided to nominateMart Helme for president.[10] As none of the other parties supported Helme's candidacy, he was left out of the election. Ambassador and former Minister of DefenceJaak Jõerüüt also prepared to run for president, but did not gain support from any party.[11]
On 3 August 2016, theReform Party nominatedSiim Kallas as the party's official candidate.[7]Marina Kaljurand andUrmas Paet had also announced interest in running, although Kaljurand stated that she was interested in doing so only if the electoral college was convened.[12][13] On 23 August, Reform Party and Social Democratic Party made a pact to support Nestor's nomination and to vote for him in the first round of voting and, if this is unsuccessful, to support Kallas in the second and third rounds.[6]
| Candidate | First round | Second round | Third round | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | Votes | % | |||
| Allar Jõks | 25 | 24.75 | 21 | 20.79 | – | – | ||
| Siim Kallas | – | – | 45 | 44.55 | 42 | 41.58 | ||
| Eiki Nestor | 40 | 39.60 | – | – | – | – | ||
| Mailis Reps | 26 | 25.74 | 32 | 31.68 | 26 | 25.74 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 8 | 7.92 | 1 | 0.99 | 30 | 29.70 | ||
| Abstentions | 2 | 1.98 | 2 | 1.98 | 3 | 2.97 | ||
| Total | 101 | 100 | 101 | 100 | 101 | 100 | ||
| Source: Vabariigi Valimiskomisjon | ||||||||
| Candidates | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Mart Helme Chairman ofEKRE | Allar Jõks Former Chancellor of Justice |  Marina Kaljurand Former Minister of Foreign Affairs | Siim Kallas Former Prime Minister and European Commissioner | Mailis Reps Member of Parliament, former Minister of Education |
After the members of Riigikogu failed to elect the president, the electoral college was called to convene and the nomination procedure started over. Each candidate needed 21 members of the electoral college to nominate them. As Kallas and Reps were in the last voting round in the Riigikogu, they automatically qualified as candidates.[14]
On 30 August 2016, the Reform Party decided to support Siim Kallas in the electoral college, whilstMarina Kaljurand was also interested in running. After the decision, Kaljurand announced that she would step down from her position as Minister of Foreign Affairs and would run for presidency without the support from the Reform Party.[15] Her presidential bid was then supported by theSocial Democratic Party.[16]
Both the Free Party and Pro Patria and Res Publica Union decided to keep backing Allar Jõks in the electoral college and gathered enough signatures for nomination.[17]
On 20 September, the chairman ofConservative People's Party of EstoniaMart Helme announced that he had gathered enough signatures for nomination.[18]
| Candidate | Fourth round | Fifth round | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | ||||
| Mart Helme | 16 | 4.78 | – | – | |||
| Allar Jõks | 83 | 24.78 | 134 | 40.00 | |||
| Marina Kaljurand | 75 | 22.39 | – | – | |||
| Siim Kallas | 81 | 24.18 | 138 | 41.19 | |||
| Mailis Reps | 79 | 23.58 | – | – | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 0 | 0 | 60 | 17.91 | |||
| Abstentions | 1 | 0.30 | 3 | 0.90 | |||
| Total | 335 | 100 | 335 | 100 | |||
| Source: Vabariigi Valimiskomisjon | |||||||
| Candidate |
|---|
.jpg) Kersti Kaljulaid Reform Party,Centre Party,Social Democratic Party,IRL,Free Party Estonian representative to the European Court of Auditors |
After the electoral college failed to elect the president, the election returned to the Parliament and the nomination procedure started over. After the results of the electoral college were announced, Jõks stated that he would not run again.[19] Helme also announced that he wouldn't run again and argued that all other previous candidates should do the same, as "new candidates were needed". Later, Kaljurand also announced that she wouldn't run again.[20]
On 27 September, a "council of elders" of Riigikogu (consisting of the speaker, vice-speakers, and leaders of all party factions) met in order to find a common candidate for all parties. They decided to proposeKersti Kaljulaid, the Estonian auditor in theEuropean Court of Auditors.[21] The proposal was received positively by the parliamentary parties, most of the MPs supporting Kaljulaid's election.[22] On 30 September 2016, Kaljulaid was officially nominated by 90 MPs. As there were not enough uncommitted MPs left to nominate another candidate, Kaljulaid was the sole candidate in the election.[23]
| Candidate | Sixth round | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | ||
| Kersti Kaljulaid | 81 | 80% | |
| Invalid/blank votes | 17 | 17% | |
| Abstentions | 3 | 3% | |
| Total | 101 | 100 | |
| Source: Vabariigi Valimiskomisjon | |||
Even though the president was not elected by popular vote, there were numerous public opinion polls studying candidates' popularity.[24]
| Poll source | Survey dates | Sample size | |  |  | |  |  |  | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kaljurand Ind. | Savisaar Kesk | Tarand Ind. | Kallas Ref | Rüütel EKRE | Ergma IRL | Paet Ref | Helme EKRE | Jõks Ind. | Nestor SDE | Reps Kesk | |||
| TNS Emor | Sep 2016 | 1009 | 40% | – | – | 18% | – | – | – | 6% | 5% | 7% | 8% |
| Turu-uuringute AS | Aug 2016 | 1003 | 22% | 15% | 6% | 17% | – | – | 2% | 5% | 8% | 3% | 3% |
| TNS Emor | Aug 2016 | 1505 | 30.4% | – | – | 22.3% | – | – | – | 6% | 6.9% | 4.9% | 7.8% |
| Turu-uuringute AS | Jun 2016 | – | 29% | 14% | 6% | 9% | – | – | 2% | 4% | 8% | 2% | 1% |
| TNS Emor | Jun 2016 | 1375 | 25% | 14% | 6% | 11% | – | – | 4% | 5% | 11% | 2% | 2% |
| TNS Emor | Apr 2016 | 1293 | 30% | 14% | 10% | 12% | – | – | – | 5% | 3% | 2% | – |
| Turu-uuringute AS | Jan 2016 | 1001 | 23% | 14% | 9% | 8% | 5% | 4% | 3% | – | – | 3% | – |
| TNS Emor | Dec 2015 | – | 20.3% | 12.6% | 9.5% | 10.6% | 3.2% | 4% | 2.9% | – | – | 1.4% | – |
| TNS Emor | Aug 2015 | 1203 | 14.3% | 13.2% | 10.1% | 11.2% | 3.4% | 5.4% | 4.8% | – | – | 2.3% | – |
| TNS Emor | Mar 2015 | 1251 | 10.4% | 13% | 9.6% | 13% | 3.6% | 6.7% | – | – | – | 1.3% | – |
| Chairman of the Council of Ministers | | |
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| Prime ministers in duties of the state elder | ||
| President-Regent | ||
| President | Päts1 | |
| Prime ministers in duties of the president2 | ||
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