TALLINN - The first ever European Parliament election in Estonia featured a record-low 27 percent voter turnout, awarding three out of the country's six available seats to the Social Democrats and punishing Res Publica, the ruling party, by leaving it without a representative in the Strasbourg-based assembly.
Analysts agreed that the Social Democrats' superb showing was due to the popularity of its leader and former foreign affairs minister, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, while opinions were mixed as to why Res Publica, the leading party in the ruling coalition that finished a close second in last year's general elections, suffered an overwhelming defeat.
"This was a signal to the government," Ilves himself said in a television interview with ETV. He stressed that in many other countries the European Parliament elections also served as a sort of interim election where voters gave their evaluation to the current government.
MP Urmas Reinsalu, who had been Res Publica's top candidate, acknowledged his deep disappointment with the results.
"I'd like to congratulate those who were elected. Res Publica as a government party will support Estonian MEPs in every possible way," he said.
"Today the people who were against the government came to the polling stations. The same happened at the 2003 election, but this time it worked against us. Our voters have stayed at home," said Reinsalu.
In Reinsalu's opinion, the Res Publica-led government has received a warning from the people that will require it to make certain changes.
Still, Reinsalu confirmed that Res Publica would keep its promises slated before the 2003 parliamentary election.
"Res Publica is a full member of the European People's Party, so we will still take part in European politics," added Reinsalu.
Apart from Ilves, Social Democrats Marianne Mikko and Ivari Padar received mandates. Padar, however, said earlier that he would reject the MEP status and would stay at home to chair the party.
The Social Democrats were to choose a substitute for him this week, and according to election results, the likeliest candidate would be MP Andres Tarand.
Former Social Affairs Minister Siiri Oviir of the Center Party, former Parliamentary Chairman Toomas Savi from the Reform Party and MP Tunne Kelam will occupy the remaining three seats reserved for Estonia in the 732-seat legislature.
Reformist Toomas Savi said the election was clearly about personalities, not parties. "If our colleagues Siim Kallas and Kristiina Ojuland participated in the election, the result would have been completely different. The success of Ilves came thanks to his foreign policy expertise," said Savi.
Tunne Kelam, one of the leaders of the Pro Patria Union, said his party was satisfied with the result and expressed his gratitude to the Estonian people who valued the consistency of Pro Patria ideas.
In terms of turnout, Estonia ranked lowest among Baltic countries and one of the lowest among the EU25. Only 27 percent - or 232,241 out of 874,418 eligible voters - bothered to visit polling stations. In comparison, about 58 percent of eligible voters took part in the previous general election last March.
Heiki Sibul, chairman of the National Electoral Committee, said that one possible reason could be the season: these election was in summer, while for the last decade elections have been either in spring or autumn.
"The European Parliament and the European Union in general are not very close subjects for common people," said Sibul. "Also, the electoral campaign had too little information on the European Parliament but rather focused on personalities of the candidates."
"I think the polls before the election were not accurate because Estonian sociologists do not have the right method of measuring preferences of the public in the new, European Union conditions," said Marek Strandberg, head of the Estonian Fund for Nature. He received 5,366 votes, or 615 votes more than Res Publica's number one candidate Reinsalu.
Independent candidates whose support at the election was estimated by various pollsters at 1 percent to 4 percent actually mustered about 6 percent. The most successful individual candidate was Georgi Bystrov, who was promoted as a single candidate for a number of public organizations of the Russian-speaking community.
Viktoria Boldyreva from the Russian Party in Estonia said the party did not expect to gain more than 1 percent due to a shortage of campaign finance. "The interests of our voters will be represented in the European Parliament because our colleagues from Latvia are likely to get a seat," she said.
Indeed, Tatyana Zdanok of the For Human Rights in a United Latvia party, a staunch defender of minority rights, earned a seat in the next European Parliament.
