NordenBladet – Estonia’s electoral system aims to provide fair representation for all political parties and ensure a diverse range of voices in the parliament. Estonia goes to the polls on March 5, 2023, to elect the 101 members of the XV composition of the country’s unicameral legislature, the Riigikogu. Riigikogu elections are held every four years, in early March.
The Estonian Riigikogu’s electoral system is a complex process that requires political parties to reach a minimum threshold of votes to gain representation in the parliament. Estonia’s unicameral parliament has 101 seats, which are allocated based on the proportion of votes that each political party receives. The process involves two types of elections: constituency and proportional representation.
In the first stage of the election, voters choose their preferred candidate from their constituency, of which there are 12. The candidates with the most votes from each constituency will then advance to the next stage, while the others will be eliminated. This results in 101 candidates for the next stage.
The second stage is a proportional representation election, where political parties submit a list of candidates to fill the remaining seats in parliament. In this stage, each party’s total votes are divided by the number of seats they received in the constituency election, plus one. This number is then used to determine the proportion of seats the party will receive in the parliament.
Parties must receive at least 5% of the vote in the proportional representation election or win a seat in one of the constituencies to gain representation in the Riigikogu. If a party fails to reach this threshold, they will not receive any seats in parliament.
More info in English about Parliamentary elections 2023 (Ministy of Foreign Affairs)
Featured image: Tallinn, Estonia (Unsplsh)