Elections in Estonia: Kaja Kalas seems to have gained newfound confidence

The result is very much in line with major opinion polls that have been published in recent weeks. As expected, it looks like Kaja Class will remain prime minister after Sunday’s elections. According to projections, her Islah Party will win approximately 31 percent of the vote and 37 seats out of a possible 101 seats in Parliament. Thus, they become the largest party.

At the same time, Kalla’s two supporting parties, Fäderneslandet (Isamaa) and the Social Democratic Party (SDE), appear to have slipped compared to the 2019 elections. However, all three parties still have majorities in the council.

Estonian media reported that the counting process is continuing on Sunday evening, and the official election result is not expected to be announced until midnight or early Monday.

Highest turnout ever

Already when the polls closed, it turned out that the turnout was 63.7 percent, the highest so far. But on election night, criticism arose of the slow counting, mainly because early electronic votes were not fully counted until around 10 p.m. on Sunday.

Of the 900,000 eligible voters, nearly half have voted in advance. Many people prefer to vote electronically and cast their vote via computer.

Great support for Ukraine

According to political observers, it will be possible to create an alliance between the Reform Party, the Liberal Estonia 200 and the Social Democrats, as is the case with the Center Party and the Christian Democratic Homeland.

The centre-left Center Party, which is popular among the Russian-speaking minority, supported the government’s position on the Ukraine issue, causing it to lose voters.

The opposition conservative People’s Party has blamed the government for the country’s poor economy and wants to stop aid to Ukraine. Looks like they’re going to drop from 19 to 17 places.

Estonia’s military aid to Ukraine is equivalent to more than one percent of GDP – the largest aid contribution of any country for its size.