Estonians Go To The Polls To Elect 101 New Legislators

On Sunday, Estonian citizens go to the polls from 07:00 to 18:00 local time to elect 101 new legislators, who will hold office for a four-year term.

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A poll conducted by the Kantar Emor consulting company showed that candidates from the Reformist Party, to which Prime Minister Kaja Kallas belongs, are the most likely to win the largest number of seats, as it is likely to obtain 24 and 30 percent of the votes.

Meanwhile, candidates from the far-right party EKRE and the Centre Party are expected to get about 18 percent and 16 percent of the votes, respectively.

The Reformist party is likely to keep the coalition it maintains with legislators from the Homeland Party and the Social Democrat Party (SDE), whose candidates will obtain about 19 percent of the votes in these elections.

The Reformist party attracts entrepreneurs since it has promised to raise military spending to at least 3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while easing corporate taxation. In addition, this party's politicians promised to approve same-sex civil unions.

At 12:00 local time, participation in the elections stood at 52 percent despite inclement weather, which has prompted freezing temperatures and a snow forecast.

With about 1.3 million inhabitants, Estonia is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union. These parliamentarian elections occur amid an economic crisis since this country registered an inflation rate of 18.6 percent in January.

"The more confused and divided the election results are, the more confused the government will be and the weaker the coalition in power will be," said Siim Kallas, a member of the Reform Party.