The election in Estonia: Kallas seems to gain new confidence

3/5/2023, 10:31:00 PM

The election in Estonia attracted a record number of people to the polls and their message is seemingly clear. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, it looks like Prime Minister Kaja Kallas will be allowed to stay. Her Reform Party is supported by every third voter.

The result is largely in line with the major opinion polls that have been published in recent weeks.

As expected, Kaja Kallas looks set to remain as prime minister after Sunday's election.

According to the forecasts, her Reform Party gets close to 33 percent of the votes and 38 seats in parliament.

They thus become the largest party.

At the same time, Kalla's support parties Fäderneslandet (Isamaa) and the Social Democrats (SDE) seem to have retreated compared to the 2019 election. Together, however, the three parties still have a majority in the chamber – 55 of the 101 seats.

The counting has been ongoing on Sunday evening and an official election result is not expected until around midnight according to or early Monday according to Estonian media.

Highest turnout ever

Already when the polling stations closed, it turned out that the turnout was 63.7, the highest so far.

But on election night, criticism has come of the slow count, mainly because electronic early votes were not fully counted until around 10pm on Sunday.

Of the 900,000 eligible voters, almost half had voted in advance.

Many people prefer to vote electronically and cast their vote via computer.

Great support for Ukraine

According to political observers, a coalition between the Reform Party, liberal Estonia 200 and the Social Democrats would be possible, as would one with the Center Party and the Christian-democratic Fatherland.

The centre-left Center Party - which has traditionally been popular among the Russian-speaking minority - has supported the government's line on the Ukraine issue, which has caused it to lose voters.

The opposition Conservative People's Party has blamed the government for the country's poor economy and wants to stop aid to Ukraine.

They look set to drop from 19 to 17 places.

Estonia's military aid to Ukraine is equivalent to more than one percent of gross domestic product – the largest aid contribution of any country relative to its size.

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