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TheRiigikogu (Estonian:[ˈriːkiˈkoku], fromEstonianriigi-, "of the state", andkogu, "assembly") is theunicameralparliament ofEstonia. In addition to approving legislation, the Parliament appoints high officials, including theprime minister andchief justice of the Supreme Court, and elects (either alone or, if necessary, together with representatives of local government within a broader electoral college) thepresident. Among its other tasks, the Riigikogu also ratifies significant foreign treaties that impose military and proprietary obligations and bring about changes in law, as well as approves the budget presented by the government as law, and monitors the executive power.
23 April 1919, the opening session of theEstonian Constituent Assembly is considered the founding date of the Parliament of Estonia.[1] Established under the1920 constitution, the Riigikogu had 100 members elected for a three-year term on the basis ofproportional representation. Elections were fixed for the first Sunday in May of the third year of parliament.[2] The first elections to the Riigikogu took place in 1920. From 1923 to 1932, there were four more elections to the Riigikogu. The elections were on a regional basis, without any threshold in the first two elections, but from 1926 a moderate threshold (2%) was used. The sessions of the Riigikogu take place in theToompea Castle, where a new building in an unusual Expressionist style was erected in the former courtyard of the medieval castle in 1920–1922.
During the subsequent periods ofSoviet occupation (1940–41),German occupation (1941–44), and the secondSoviet occupation (1944–1991) the Parliament was disbanded. The premises of theRiigikogu were used by theSupreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR during the second Soviet occupation.
In September 1992, a year after Estonia had regained its independence from the Soviet Union, elections to the Parliament took place on the basis of the thirdConstitution of Estonia adopted in a referendum in the summer of the same year. The 1992 constitution, which incorporates elements of the 1920 and 1938 Constitutions and explicitly asserts its continuity with the Estonian state as it existed between 1918 and 1940, sees the return of a unicameral parliament with 101 members. The most recent parliamentary elections were held on 5 March 2023. The main differences between the current system and a purepolitical representation, or proportional representation, system are the established 5% nationalthreshold, and the use of a modifiedD'Hondt formula (the divisor is raised to the power 0.9). This modification makes for more disproportionality than does the usual form of the formula.
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Established on October 5 of 1992, theChancellery of the Riigikogu (Estonian:Riigikogu Kantselei) is the administration supporting the Riigikogu in the performance of its constitutional functions.[8] Thedepartments of the Chancellery perform the daily functions.