Reform Party wins European Parlt elections in Estonia

Reform Party. Photo: Remo Tõnismäe

The Reform Party won Sunday's elections to the European Parliament in Estonia, whereas the largest number of votes was garnered by Marina Kaljurand, top candidate of the Estonian Social Democratic Party (SDE).

The party to receive the most votes, 87,158 or 26.2 percent of all votes, was the Reform Party, followed by SDE with 77,384 or 23.3 percent of votes, Center Party with 47,819 or 14.4 percent of votes, the Conservative People's Party (EKRE) with 42,268 or 12.7 percent of votes and Isamaa with 34,189 or 10.3 percent of votes.

Kaljurand received 65,559 votes. Also elected to the European Parliament were the Reform Party's Andrus Ansip with 41,006 votes, Urmas Paet with 30,010 votes, the Center Party's Yana Toom with 27,003 votes, Estonian Conservative People's Party candidate Jaak Madison with 22,823 votes and SDE's Sven Mikser with 2,886 votes.

After initial confusion whether Estonia's potential seventh seat in the European Parliament will go to Isamaa's Riho Terras or SDE's Sven Mikser, it was determined that Kaljurand got enough votes for these to be passed on to Mikser to get him a seat, under the d'Hondt system of proportional representation. Thus, if Estonia receives a seventh seat in the European Parliament as a result of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union, it will go to Isamaa's top candidate Riho Terras, who collected 21,474 votes.

Individual candidate Raimond Kaljulaid collected 20,643 votes, Center Party candidate Igor Grazin 10,322 votes, EKRE leader Mart Helme 8,276 votes, Reform Party's Taavi Roivas 7,707 votes and Isamaa's Juri Luik 5,368 votes.

A total of 332,918 people, or 37.6 percent, voted in the elections. Valid ballot papers numbered 332,164 and invalid ones 754. Altogether 155,521 people cast their ballot online, whereas advance voters numbered 68,463 and those who voted at their home 2,082.