Riigikogu candidates win big

  • 2013-10-23
  • TBT Staff

Ninety-three members of the Estonian Riigikogu were among the candidates in the Estonian municipality councils elections that took place on Oct. 20, with 60 being elected, although the majority of them are unlikely to start working in a municipal council, reports Postimees Online.

The most successful of the MPs was Center Party member Juri Ratas who collected 8,018 votes in Tallinn. Altogether, 21 Center Party MPs ran in the elections and 16 were elected to municipal councils. Besides Ratas, the party's other MPs-vote magnets were Yana Toom with 5,322 votes in Tallinn, and Viktor Vassiljev with 4,077 votes in Tallinn. In comparison, Center Party chairman and mayor of Tallinn Edgar Savisaar received 39,950 votes, scoring more votes than anyone else in Estonia, while Ratas came next.

Twenty-one Pro Patria and Res Publica Union members ran with 17 elected. Margus Tsahkna received 3,257 in Tartu and Liisa-Ly Pakosta 2,112 votes in Tallinn. In comparison, PRU's top candidate for the post of mayor of Tallinn, Eerik-Niiles Kross, scored 6,978 votes, having also the third-best score in all of Estonia after Savisaar and Ratas.

Thirty Reform Party MPs ran and 15 were elected. The party's mayor of Tallinn candidate Valdo Randpere scored the most, 2,341 votes among the Reform Party MPs.

Eighteen MPS in the Social Democratic Party ran and 11 were elected. Jevgeni Ossinovski, with 2,404 votes in Narva, was the most successful among them.

Three out of 5 MPs who don’t belong to any party also ran and one of them, Rainer Vakra, was elected with 4,236 votes in Tallinn (he ran in the SDP list).

According to the law, MPs cannot simultaneously work in local municipality councils; thus, they have to choose one or the other. In the past, the majority have chosen to stay in the parliament, meaning that other people in their election lists have replaced them in the municipal councils.