TALLINN - Incumbent President Arnold Ruutel's tendency to avoid pre-election debates has puzzled his fellow presidential candidates and politicians, the daily SL Ohtuleht reported.
When the People's Union named Ruutel on June 18 as its presidential candidate, the head of state said he did not intend to take part in debates ahead of the election, and was not planning a large election campaign.
People's Union spokesman Agu Uudelepp said Ruutel was keeping a low profile because he wanted to await the outcome of Parliament's vote. Presidential spokesman Eero Raun, on the other hand, said Ruutel did not yet regard himself as an official candidate for the presidency.
MEP Toomas Hendrik Ilves, a joint candidate of three parliament parties, says attempts to isolate Ruutel from debates, where his response to questions must be automatic and unplanned, is a sign of stagnation.
"What is it, then, that people fear when they say the president will not join the debates?" the Social Democrat lawmaker asked in puzzlement. The Reform Party's secretary general, Kristen Michal, said the president's avoidance of debate just shows he has nothing to say. "Or, that it is better if he leaves unsaid what he has to say," he added.
Businessman Jaan Manitski, whom Pro Patria Union put forward as a presidential candidate, said it is a candidate's duty to take part in debate. "It would increase people's trust in the future head of state and develop our democracy," he told the daily.
It is regrettable that Ruutel has stripped himself of the opportunity to acquaint the public with his views, the leader of Res Publica, Taavi Veskimagi, said.
"In 2006, the head of state will not be elected in Estonia through some hole-and-corner political deal, but in a public debate over Estonia's goals in the next five years and the problems facing us. And it is to be hoped this will happen in Parliament," Veskimagi said.
Secretary general of the Center Party, Kadri Must, voiced a diametrically opposite opinion, saying Ruutel's actions speak for themselves. "Candidates' debates and roundtables are for those politicians that people do not know. Everyone knows Arnold Ruutel very well," she said.
