Estonia, Law and Regulations, Legislation

"Riigikogu's council of elders heard the opinion of the national electoral committee who, based on the time of the term of office of President Toomas Hendrik Ilves ending, proposed the dates," speaker of the parliament Eiki Nestor told BNS.

According to Nestor it has to be taken into account that the next president might not be elected in the parliament and organizing a meeting of electors takes time. He added that the procedure would be such that if the president is not elected in the parliament, elections of electors would take place in local councils and after that their meeting.

Chairman of the national electoral committee Aaro Mottus stressed that the committee does not set the date of elections. "If we assume that it will take place at an extraordinary sitting of the parliament, then the day depends on who will call the sitting. Whether it is the president or 21 MPs or the government – they will set the dates," Mottus said.

According to Mottus the electoral committee has discussed the dates with representatives of the parliament. "We have discussed that these dates may be the actual dates. I stress that these are rough dates. The Riigikogu has not started its fall session yet in August and will convene extraordinarily on Sept. 12, and before that extraordinary sittings would have to be carried out and these have to be convened," Mottus said.

If electing the president in the parliament fails, the electoral committee would probably convene on Sept. 24 since that would be enough time to carry out all necessary procedures, Mottus said.

The term of office of the Estonian president is five years. The second term of office of Toomas Hendrik Ilves will end in August.