At stake in this election:

• 101 seats in the Parliament (Riigikogu)

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Toomas Hendrik ILVES
• 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.***

* A candidate must obtain two-thirds (68) of the votes in the parliament to be elected. If this does not happen after two rounds of voting, a third is held the same day between the top two candidates in the previous round. If this round fails to elect a president, an electoral assembly, comprising parliament and members of local councils, elects the president.

*** There 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: Estonian Centre Party / Eesti Keskerakond (KESK)
  • Leader: Edgar SAVISAAR
  • Seats won in this election: 26
  • Seats won in last election: 29
• Party: Estonian Reform Party / Eesti Reformierakond (ER)
  • Leader: Andrus ANSIP
  • Seats won in this election: 33
  • Seats won in last election: 31
• Party: Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica / Isamaa je Res Publica Liit (IRPL)
  • Leader: Mart LAAR
  • Seats won in this election: 23
  • Seats won in last election: 19
• Party: Estonian Greens / Erakond Eestimaa Rohelised (EER)
  • Leader: Aleksei LOTMAN
  • Seats won in this election: 0
  • Seats won in last election: 3
• Party: Social Democratic Party / Sotsiaaldemokraatlik Erakond (SDE)
  • Leader: Sven MIKSER
  • Seats won in this election: 19
  • Seats won in last election: 10
• Party: Estonian People's Union / Eestimaa Rahvaliit (ERL)
  • Leader: Juhan AARE
  • Seats won in this election: 0
  • Seats won in last election: 6

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 1,327,439 (2011)
• Registered Voters: 913,346 (March 2011 )

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 708,711 (2011)

·         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: 19 (following the 2011 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: 199,115 (est.)