Parliamentary elections were held in

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

on 4 March 2007. The newly elected 101

members of the 11th Riigikogu This is a list of the members of the 11th Riigikogu, following the 2007 election. Election results Lists By party Estonian Reform Party (31) Estonian Centre Party (29) Pro Patria and Res Publica Union (19) Social Democratic Party (10) ...

assembled at

Toompea Castle Toompea castle ( et, Toompea loss) is a medieval castle on Toompea hill in the central part of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. In modern times, it houses the Parliament of Estonia. History The Toompea castle's predecessor, an ancient Estonia ...

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...

within ten days of the election. It was the world's first nationwide vote where part of the voting was carried out in the form of remote

electronic voting Electronic voting (also known as e-voting) is voting that uses electronic means to either aid or take care of casting and counting ballots. Depending on the particular implementation, e-voting may use standalone ''electronic voting machines'' ( ...

via the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. The election saw the Estonian Reform Party emerged as the largest faction in the

Riigikogu The Riigikogu (; from Estonian ''riigi-'', of the state, and ''kogu'', assembly) is the unicameral parliament of Estonia. In addition to approving legislation, the Parliament appoints high officials, including the Prime Minister and Chief Just ...

with 31 seats. The

Estonian Centre Party The Estonian Centre Party ( et, Eesti Keskerakond, EK) is a populist political party in Estonia. It was founded in 1991 as a direct successor of the Popular Front of Estonia, and it is currently led by Jüri Ratas. The party was founded on 12 O ...

finished second with 29 seats, whilst the new

Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica Isamaa is a Christian-democratic and national-conservative political party in Estonia. It was founded on 4 June 2006 under the name of "Pro Patria and Res Publica Union", by the merger of two conservative parties, Pro Patria Union and Res Publi ...

lost 16 seats compared to the 35 won by the two parties in the 2003 elections. The Social Democrats gained 4 seats, whilst the Greens entered the Riigikogu for the first time with 7 seats and the People's Union lost seven of its 13 seats.

Background

The Centre Party, led by the mayor of Tallinn

Edgar Savisaar Edgar Savisaar (31 May 1950 – 29 December 2022) was an Estonian politician, one of the founding members of Popular Front of Estonia and the Centre Party. He served as the acting Prime Minister of Estonia, Minister of the Interior, Ministe ...

, had been increasingly excluded from collaboration, since his open collaboration with

Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

United Russia United Russia ( rus, Единая Россия, Yedinaya Rossiya, (j)ɪˈdʲinəjə rɐˈsʲijə) is a Russian conservative political party. As the largest party in Russia, it holds 325 (or 72.22%) of the 450 seats in the State Duma , havin ...

party, real estate scandals in Tallinn,Savisaar's and Kruuda's mutual gifts
/ref> and the

Bronze Soldier The Bronze Soldier ( et, Pronkssõdur, russian: Бронзовый солдат, ''Bronzovyj soldat'') is the informal name of a controversial Soviet World War II war memorial in Tallinn, Estonia, built at the site of several war graves, which w ...

controversy, considered as a deliberate attempt to split Estonian society by provoking the Russian minority.Lõhestaja number üks
Postimees

Electoral system

In 2007 Estonia held its and the world's first national Internet election. Voting was available from February 26 to 28. A total of 30,275 citizens (3.4%) used Internet voting.Estonia Scores World Web First In National Polls

InformationWeek ''InformationWeek'' is a digital magazine which conducts corresponding face-to-face events, virtual events, and research. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California and was first published in 1985 by CMP Media, later called Informa. The p ...

February 28, 2007 Electronic voting in Estonia began in October 2005 local elections when Estonia became the first country to have legally binding general elections using the Internet as a means of casting the vote and was declared a success by the Estonian election officials. The electoral system was a two-tier semi-open list

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

system with a 5% (27,510.65 votes)

election threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can ...

Seats by electoral district

Results

References

External links

Opinion PollsEstonia
European Election Database {{Estonian elections 2007

Parliamentary election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

Estonian election