Sunday December 22, 2024

Estonian opposition Reform Party wins parliamentary elections

Published : 04 Mar 2019, 15:38

Updated : 04 Mar 2019, 15:44

DF-Xinhua Report

A woman votes at a polling station in Paldiski, a town in northwestern Estonia, on March 3, 2019. Voting of Estonian parliamentary election at polling stations of local culture centers, schools, shopping centers and Tallinn city office went on smoothly on Sunday. (Xinhua/Guo Chunju).

Estonia's liberal opposition Reform Party won 34 seats in the country's parliamentary elections held on Sunday, outperforming the current ruling Centre Party, which gained 26 seats, showed the election results on Monday.

The two small parties in the current ruling coalition Pro Patria and the Social Democrats won 12 seats and 10 seats respectively, while the right-wing Conservative People's Party of Estonia got 19 seats, showed the voting and election results on the official website of State Electoral Office of Estonia.

The final results of the total 101 seats of the Estonian parliament are set to be announced by the Electoral Committee later on Monday.

Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas, who is the chairman of the Centre Party, said that he will do his utmost to make the Centre Party a part of the next government, the Estonian Public Broadcasting ETV reported.

The voter turnout was 63.9 percent, showed the preliminary results on the official election website.

A total of 451 polling stations from 12 voting districts opened from 9 a.m. (0700 GMT) till 8 p.m. local time (1800 GMT) Sunday for voters to cast ballots for their regional candidates out of 1,099 candidates from 10 political parties and 15 independents.

Out of the total 1.32 million Estonian population, altogether 958,571 people, including 77,881 Estonian citizens living abroad, can vote in the general elections, the Estonian Ministry of the Interior confirmed.

During the advance voting period on Feb. 21-27 in Estonia, 247,232 voters chose internet voting, up from just over 186,000 in the 2017 local elections.

The advance overseas voting was held at Estonian foreign representations from Feb. 16 to Feb. 20, according to the State Electoral Office.

The 13th Estonian parliament Riigikogu was elected in 2015, with Estonian Reform Party winning 27.7 percent votes or 30 seats, followed by Estonian Centre Party's 24.8 percent or 27 seats.

In November 2016, Ratas took over from then Prime Minister Taavi Roivas from the Reform Party after the latter lost a confidence vote in parliament, forming a new coalition government with Pro Patria and the Social Democrats.