PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS: 34 years of successful adaptation struggles

Estonia’s presidential elections may look chaotic, but their results have generally been good. The country’s political history offers little support for declaring the system a failure.

When Estonia’s political system expects the president to act as an authority above party politics and as a balancer, both presidents with party backgrounds and those without them have handled the role well. Not every elected president has met the expectations of the entire society, but that does not mean the election system fails to deliver.

On the contrary, the results have been good, and often very good, even as politicians have repeatedly changed how they conduct the election process, compete with one another and cooperate. The article identifies the main tension as the gap between the president’s intended role and the election rules, on one side, and the desire for a campaign resembling a directly elected American presidency, on the other.

Estonia’s past presidential contests have been varied, but their outcomes have not been poor. That is why, the article argues, claims about an improper “back room” may themselves have been devised in a back room.