Candidates competed for a target of 68 votes in the 101 seat Parliament, the amount necessary to elect a president in any of the three votes. Each candidate had the freedom to enroll in any or all of the rounds of voting.
The elections kicked off at noon on Aug. 27. Peeter Kreitzberg from the opposition Center Party won 40 votes, and the Moderates' Andres Tarand got 38.
Tonu Koiv, chairman of the Moderates, one of the three parties in the ruling coalition, told The Baltic Times that he believed Tarand's popularity has a good chance of being carried over to the electoral committee in September.
According to a master plan hatched by the opposition, Kreitzberg became the joint candidate for the Parliament's left-wing opposition parties. But the ruling coalition had a trickier time working out a strategy.
It was decided that Tarand should be the ruling parties' candidate in the first round of voting. Peeter Tulviste of the Pro Patria Union, another coalition party, joined the elections from the second round. The Reform Party's Toomas Savi is to keep himself out of the game until the electoral committee vote.
Meelis Atonen, deputy chairman of the Reform Party, said his party decided not to support Tarand in the first round of voting.
The party decided to wait for the vote of the electoral committee, relying on the latest polls by research companies Emor and ES Turu Uuringute AS, and not throw Savi into the voting at that point. This might have damaged Savi's credibility in what would have been a fight against Kreitzberg that had no outcome.
The results of an end-of-August survey by ES Turu Uuringute AS say that Tulviste and Savi each has 22 percent of the population behind them. Kreitzberg enjoys the support of 16 percent.
The general belief is that in their votes in September local governments are likely to heed the views of their constituencies.
The two-day parliamentary voting resumed on Aug. 28, but the much-praised and promoted Tulviste failed to become president the easy way, confirming that the presidential race would continue in three weeks. Tulviste got 35 and 33 votes in the morning and afternoon sessions, respectively, while Kreitzberg received 36 and 33 votes.
While all 101 MPs were present for the Aug. 27 session, only 88 turned up the following day. The number of blank ballots increased from one in the first round to 24 in the third as the People's Union, the Parliament's second largest opposition party, declared that it would give up its previous decision to support Kreitzberg.
The Center Party, which has 28 seats in the Parliament, considered this step a political betrayal. According to an initial agreement with the People's Union, the Center Party would support Arnold Ruutel, the Union's candidate, if Kreitzberg failed to win during the three parliamentary votes. The People's Union complained that the Center Party had not given enough guarantees to stick to the agreement.
The national electoral committee comprises 101 MPs and 266 local government representatives and will elect the president by a secret ballot. In this last-ditch vote, a simple majority is what counts.
The Parliament will nominate the two candidates who received the most votes in the parliamentary rounds, but new candidates can join the race if they get at least 21 signatures of the members of the committee - a feat possible for most of the candidates.
Of the 266 electoral committee members, 10 will be from Tallinn, four from Tartu, and other cities and towns will each have two representatives. The rest of Estonia's local governments will contribute one person each.
Meri was elected president for a second term by the electoral committee on Sept. 20, 1996. His authority expires on Oct. 7, 2001.
To become president, a candidate should be an Estonian citizen by birth and at least 40 years old. The presidential term is five years.
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