No. 15

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Riigikogu elections – in comparison with the world and neighbours

  • Rein Toomla

    Rein Toomla

    Teacher, Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu

Since restoration of independence, Estonia has had five general elections. This article analyzes the results of these elections and compares them to parliamentary elections held by three of Estonia’s closest neighbours – Finland, Sweden and Latvia.

The two most recent elections produced fairly similar results in Estonia: six parties made it into the Riigikogu, and the two most successful ones were fairly close to each other in terms of number of seats, while the third one came in a somewhat distant third. The position of the fourth party is distinct, but the other two are already close to the 5% threshold. This begs the question of whether we can talk of Estonia having a country-specific pattern for electoral results, one that would be characteristic of future elections as well. And also, whether it is at all possible that any country could develop a specific pattern that is unlike the ones in other countries?

Full article in Estonian

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