People's Union to nominate Ruutel as the party's presidential candidate this Sunday.

  • 2006-06-16
TALLINN 's The leader of the People's Union is going to declare at Sunday's [June 18] party convention that is set to nominate Ruutel as the party's presidential candidate.

According to Villu Reiljan, Ruutel has been a very good president for Estonia, therefore he is going to point out that it was during Ruutel's tenure as chairman of the Supreme Council, which is how the parliament that voted in favor of Estonia's independence was called, that Estonia became a member of the United Nations in 2001, and that during his presidency in 2004 the country joined the EU and NATO

As Ruutel's outstanding services in domestic politics, Reiljan is about to name the formation of such government coalitions, which have paid significantly more attention to social justice and regional development than previous coalitions.
Ruutel's position in the presidential race is strong and in the electoral college the People's Union together with its allies will be able to nominate the incumbent president for reelection with a very large number of votes, Reiljan is about to say.
To show its popularity, the People's Union on Sunday will hand the party card to its 10,000th member.

Ruutel, who turned 78 last month, has said he would run for a second term as president in the electoral college vote, skipping the parliamentary rounds. An electoral college will be convened only if the parliament fails to get the required two-thirds majority behind any presidential candidate on three successive attempts early this fall.