ESTONIA: ILVES IS ELECTED PRESIDENT OF

UNCLAS TALLINN 000887 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV EN SUBJECT: ESTONIA: ILVES IS ELECTED PRESIDENT OF ESTONIA Ref: (A) TALLINN 00798 (B) TALLINN 00867 ¶1. (U) On September 23 Toomas Hendrik Ilves, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and former Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the U.S., was elected President of Estonia. A 345-member electoral college comprised of parliamentarians and local municipality representatives voted 174-162 for Ilves over incumbent Arnold Ruutel. There were 8 abstentions and 1 invalid ballot. The inauguration ceremony will take place on October 9. ¶2. (U) The National Electoral Committee certified the results of the election. However, Center Party member Viktor Fjodorov filed a complaint relating to the selection of a member in the electoral college. The Committee registered a Reform deputy in place of Fjodorov as Loksa municipality's elector. Fjodorov's appeal to invalidate the Committee's decision is now being decided by the Supreme Court. However, the result of this case will not affect the outcome of the election: Ilves garnered just enough votes to maintain a simple majority of votes cast. ¶3. (U) After the election, Ilves said, "Estonia should be clearly among the ones who generate ideas in Europe" and not be afraid to take its ideas to the wider world. "Postimees", the leading Estonian-daily, commented that though Ilves has an extremely high level of public support, he will be assuming office at a volatile and fragile moment due to the coming parliamentary elections next year. Ilves' election is a considered to be triumph for those parties that backed his candidacy -- the Social Democrats, Reform Party, Pro Patria, and Res Publica. They are hoping to carry this momentum into the parliamentary elections, although with those elections still six months away this may not be easy. WOS