At stake in this election:

• 101 seats in the Parliament (Riigikogu)

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Arnold RUUTEL
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Andrus ANSIP
• Assembly: Estonia has a unicameral Parliament (Riigikogu) with 101 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by parliament to serve a 5-year term.
• The Prime Minister is nominated by the president with the approval of the parliament.
• In the Parliament (Riigikogu) 101 members are elected through an open-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms.***

*** The are 12 multi-member constituencies with district magnitude ranging from 6 to 13 seats. There is a 5% threshold. Seats are allocated in three rounds. In the first round, seats are awarded to candidates who garner the same or more votes than the simple quota in their electoral districts. In the second round, seats are allocated in a traditional PR method. That is, party lists are awarded seats based on their share of the vote in the district, and candidates within the list receive seats in the order of how many preferential votes they received. In the third round of counting, all remaining mandates are distributed between the national candidate lists with at least 5% of the national vote.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: Center Party (EK)
  • Leader: Edgar SAVISAAR, Siiri OVIIR, Kalev KALLO
  • Seats won in this election: 28
• Party: Fatherland League (I)
  • Leader: Mart LAAR, Tunne KELAM, Toivo JURGENSON
  • Seats won in this election: 18
• Party: Reform Party (R)
  • Leader: Siim KALLAS, Toomas SAVI, Valve KIRSIPUU
  • Seats won in this election: 18
  • Seats won in last election: N/A
• Party: Moderates (M)****
  • Leader: Andres TARAND, Toomas Hendrik ILVES, Marju LAURISTIN
  • Seats won in this election: 17
• Party: Coaltion Party (K)*****
  • Leader: Mart SIIMANN, Mai TREIAL, Arvo SIRENDI
  • Seats won in this election: 7
• Party: Estonian Rural People's Party (EME)
  • Leader: Arnold RUUTEL, Andres VARIK, Villu REILJAN
  • Seats won in this election: 7
• Party: Estonian United People's Party (EUR)*******
  • Leader: Viktor ANDREJEV, Jevgeni TOMBERG, Tiit TOOMSALU
  • Seats won in this election: 6
• Party: Other parties and independents
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 0

**** The Moderates includes the Estonian People's Party.
***** The Coalition Party includes the Pensioners' and Families' League (EPPL) and the Rural League.
******* The United People's Party includes the Estonian Social Democratic Workers Party

Last Parliamentary election:

• Parliamentary elections were last held on March 5, 1995.
  Seats decided in the 1995 election: 101

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 1,380,620 (1999)
• Registered Voters: 857,270 (1999)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 737,487 (1999)

·         Is Estonia a signatory to CEDAW: N/A

·         Has Estonia ratified CEDAW: Yes, accession (21 October 1991)

·         Gender Quota: No

·         Female candidates in this election: Yes

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 18 (following the 1999 elections)

·         Human Development Index Position: 30 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: N/A

Disability Data:

·         Is Estonia a signatory to CRPD: Yes (25 September 2007)

·         Has Estonia ratified CRPD: Yes (30 May 2012)

·         Population with a disability: 207,093 (est.)