TALLINN (Sputnik) — In Estonia's indirect presidential election system, the parliament votes to elect the president but if none of the candidates win the required number of votes the choice is made by an electoral college made up of lawmakers and local representatives. The parliament failed to elect a head of state in the presidential runoffs on August 29-30, thus paving the way for electoral college elections.
The second round of voting is set to take place at 16:00 local time (13:00 GMT), in which electoral college members will choose between Allar Joks and Siim Kallas, who served as prime minister, in various ministerial posts and as an EU commissioner.
The first round eliminated opposition member and former Education Minister Mailis Reps, former Foreign Minister Marina Kaljurand and Conservative People's Party of Estonia chairman Mart Helme. These received 79, 75 and 16 votes respectively, while Joks and Kallas received 82 and 81 votes.
The 2016 Electoral College consists of 101 lawmakers and 234 representatives of local governments. A candidate needs to secure a simple majority of votes to win. The election process will restart if the Electoral College also fails to choose the next president.
The incumbent president is due to step down in November. He is serving his second consecutive term and the Constitution forbids him to run for a third time.
