Talk:2007 Estonian parliamentary election

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Untitled[edit]

Maps! http://www.electoralgeography.com/en/countries/e/estonia/2007-legislative-election-estonia.html

Social Democrats? Centrist? To the right of the Centre Party no less? Surely the Social Democrats are of the left, unless they're not really Social Democrats? --CTerry 16:26, 23 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Eh... Estonian politics is a bit weird for foreigners, I'm afraid. See the article or e.g. [1]. So far - when they've been governing - they've been to the right of Centre Party.Constanz - Talk 06:55, 24 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

That's because the Centre party's politics aren't liberal, but center-left populism, despite their claims to the contrary. Also, the political center in Estonian politics is a bit farther to the (economic) right than in Western Europe, and there's far less ideological extremism - basically every major party is centrist, with either a left or right-wing leaning. And saying that the Social Democrats have been governing isn't really true - the Social Democratic party was formed by the merger of the centrist Moderates (who were ever-so-slightly leftist) and the flash-in-the pan Liberal Democrat party that was formed by former Centre Party members who jumped ship during a failed political coup within the party. The new party moved markedly towards the left. In fact, the Social Democrats fit the designation of "social liberalism" far better than the Centre Party, who are more authoritarian, technocratic social democrats. Unigolyn 10:02, 5 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Coming here to try to get a grip on the different parties' positions, I can certainly concur with the statement that "Estonian politics is a bit weird for foreigners". As a newcomer to the subject I would really appreciate if someone with knowledge of Estonian politics expanded the Wikipedia articles on the different parties - especially the Social Democrats and the Centre Party - with more in-depth information about what kind of economic and social policies they stand for in practice, as well as their ideological positions as stated in their programmes and platforms. (I found this article, on the Estonian Institute Estonica information site, rather useful as an introduction. Perhaps it could be used as a source - although I would find more in-depth analysis from the field of policial science very interesting.) Alarm 12:42, 5 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Pre-WW II referendums[edit]

There were more than 2 referendums during the pre-WW II period:

1923 (religious education)
1932 (constitution)
1933 (constitution, first)
1933 (constitution, second)
1936 (constitution)

Two questions about the voting (system/Russians)[edit]

Hello, can I please ask two questions?

1. I see there is a fixed number of seats for each electoral district. How are they distributed among the parties? With the D'Hondt method ?

2. Why do those "Russian parties" have such low scores? Do most of the Russian-speakers just vote according to ideology? Or don't they show up or something? I know that a substantial part of the people in Estonia don't speak Estonian but Russian. I also know that many of those don't have the Estonian nationality but still... I find 1.2% quite low. Can anyone explain this?

Perhaps some of my questions could improve the article (in an indirect way :) ). Thank you, Evilbu 15:13, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

According to exit polls (that I can't find a link for right now), the Centre Party won 55% of the ethnic Russian vote. The Russian parties are radical pro-union-with-Russia parties, not just parties for Russians. —Cuiviénen 03:58, 7 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

2) Central party (second most votes this time) is the most popular party for russians. Although it has lots of estonian supporters too.82.131.15.170 16:58, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

1) The wiki article on D'Hondt actually describes Estonia's modified D'Hondt system. 2) Like Cuivienen said, the "Russian" parties are extremist minority parties, most of the major parties include plenty of ethnic Russians as candidates. Unigolyn 09:28, 7 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

O, I didn't see that. Apparently you work with three rounds which is quite complicated? How many Russian-speakers can actually vote? I must say that I am surprised that their own parties aren't that succesful, where I come from, only a handful of people don't vote along ethnic/linguistic lines.Evilbu 15:19, 7 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Estonian election law in English is in the internet. [2] I cite the § 62. Verification of election results

(1) A simple quota shall be calculated for each electoral district, which shall be obtained by dividing the number of valid votes cast in the electoral district by the number of mandates in the district.
(2) A candidate for whom the number of votes cast exceeds or equals the simple quota is elected.
(3) In the lists of candidates of those political parties in an electoral district whose candidates receive at least 5 per cent of the votes nationally, the candidates shall be ranked according to the number of votes cast for each candidate. The votes cast for candidates standing in the list of candidates of the same political party in an electoral district shall be totalled. A political party shall be given as many mandates as the number of times by which the number of votes it receives in the electoral district exceeds the simple quota. Mandates obtained pursuant to subsection (2) of this section are also deemed to be mandates of a political party. The number of mandates of a political party shall be increased by one if the remaining votes total at least 75 per cent of the simple quota. A political party shall also be given a mandate if the number of votes is at least 75 per cent of the simple quota. The candidates at the top of the list for whom the number of votes cast is at least 10 per cent of the simple quota are elected. If at least two candidates receive an equal number of votes, the candidate who is further towards the top of the national list of candidates shall be elected.
(4) Mandates which are not distributed in electoral districts on the basis of a simple quota shall be distributed as compensation mandates between the political parties whose candidates receive at least 5 per cent of the votes nationally.
(5) The compensation mandates shall be distributed using a modified d'Hondt distribution method with the distribution series of 1, 20,9, 30,9, 40,9, etc. In calculating the comparative figure for each political party, as many first elements of the series shall be omitted as the number of mandates obtained by the political party in the electoral districts. If the comparative figures of at least two political parties are equal, the political party whose candidates were registered earlier shall be given the mandate.
(6) The candidate who is further towards the top of the list and for whom the number of votes cast is at least 5 per cent of the simple quota shall be given a compensation mandate in the national list of candidates. Upon the distribution of mandates, the candidates who were elected in electoral districts shall be omitted.
(7) If, upon the distribution of compensation mandates, it becomes evident that there are not enough candidates in the national list of candidates for whom the number of votes cast is at least 5 per cent of the simple quota of his or her electoral district, the candidate of the same list who has received the highest percentage of votes of the simple quota of his or her electoral district shall be given a compensation mandate. In the event of an equal number of votes, the candidate who is further towards the top of the submitted list shall be given a compensation mandate.
(8) No political party shall be given more mandates than there are candidates in its list.
(9) If a resolution to register a candidate of a political party is revoked (subsection 32 (5)), the votes cast for him or her in a foreign state shall be retained by that political party. The votes of a candidate who dies after the start of advance polls shall also be retained by the political party. If a resolution to register an independent candidate is revoked or if he or she dies, the votes cast for him or her shall not be taken into account in the verification of election results.
(10) The National Electoral Committee shall prepare a record concerning the election results which shall be signed by the Chairman of the Committee. The date and time of preparation of the record shall be indicated therein.
(11) Election results shall be verified in the National Electoral Committee in public.

My comment is that the current election system is indeed complicated.

Most of Russian electorate votes for Center Party. Good proof to this statement is also the election result in Ida-Viru election district which has a large Russian majority, where they got 55,2% share of votes.[3] Their 2 parties have lost ground during the time. By the way, their Russian Party in Estonia got fewer votes than their membership figure (1217 members)[4]

--Juhan 19:33, 9 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]