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 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 restarts 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 running for a third time.
