Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, who has stood at the helm of the Reform Party since 2004, was re-elected as chairman of the party at the convention of the Reform Party in this southern city on Saturday.
Reform re-elects Ansip as chairman
25th May 2013, 21:30
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Ansip, the sole candidate, received 1,212 votes.
Spokespeople for Reform told BNS that in the election of the chairman eligible party members only could vote for the candidate or not vote. Therefore there were no votes against or abstentions.
Delegates also elected a 14-strong board for the party for the next two years. The biggest numbers of votes in that election went to the chairman of the parliamentary economic affairs committee Kaja Kallas, who received 909 votes, Foreign Minister Urmas Paet, 849 votes, and Environment Minister Keit Pentus-Rosimannus, 827 votes.
There are three members in the board's new lineup who were not members of the previous Reform Party board. They are Kaja Kallas, MEP Kristiina Ojuland, and Kairi Uustulnd, chief of the office of the prime minister.
The board will elect deputy chairs of the party on the party chairman's proposal.
Ansip said at a meeting of the party's policy-making council at the beginning of February that he would keep his promise to lead the party until the end of the present Cabinet's term of office. "I've been asked by members of the opposition in particular whether I intend to run for chairman in June. I can tell members of the party directly - yes, I do. Anyone else who does too is welcome, they'll have to compete with me. The party has been under attack for six months and there would be no justification if I abandoned the party on the battlefield in such a situation," Ansip said.