Both opposition parties put up candidates for vice speaker

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Photo: Peeter Langovits / Postimees

Incumbent Jüri Ratas from the Center Party and Social Democrat Eiki Nestor will both run for the post of deputy speaker of the Estonian parliament in the annual vote Thursday, as the two opposition parties have failed to agree on a common candidate.

"The Center Party group supports the continuation of Jüri Ratas as Riigikogu deputy speaker," leader of the Centrist group Kadri Simson told BNS on Tuesday. She said Ratas has demonstrated himself to be an unbiased, competent and effective member of the Riigikogu board who during his term so far has stood for improving the parliament's reputation in every way.

Simson said that besides, in nominating Ratas the Center Party was abiding by agreements concluded with the Social Democratic Party (SDE) two years ago. "As we remember, in the last elections the Center Party received 26 Riigikogu mandates and SDE 19. Despite that we split equally between ourselves the scarce positions that belong in the Riigikogu to the opposition, with SDE getting two committee chairs and half the vice chairs of committees, and the Center Party the Riigikogu vice chair, one chair of ad-hoc committee and half the vice chairs of committees," Simson said. That balance has been skewed by now as two of the Center Party defectors who joined SDE took with them also their vice chair jobs, she added.

As Simson said, deputy chairman of the SDE group Eiki Nestor said as recently as a month ago that the agreements hold. "At this point it seems that bringing down Ratas has been set out as the guarantor of the cooperation agreement between SDE and the window row [non-party deputies], but the state of affairs in the Riigikogu allows to presume that it doesn't have the full support of even the SDE group," said Simson.

The SDE group decided on Monday to nominate Nestor for the post of deputy speaker and announced that also Democrats, or the five former Centrists now sitting in parliament as non-partisan deputies, will support Nestor.

The largest party group, of Reform, has said their candidate for deputy speaker is incumbent Laine Randjärv.

The other ruling coalition party, Pro Patria and Res Publica Union (IRL), has said their candidate for the post of speaker is incumbent Ene Ergma, who has served as speaker for the past nine years.

The two deputy speakers of the parliament now are Laine Randjärv and Jüri Ratas.

Reform commands 33 seats, IRL 23 seats, Center 21 seats and SDE 19 seats in the 101-seat parliament. The association of Democrats consists of five MPs.

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