Tarand protest bid failed to stop Ilves’ 2011 re-election

Indrek Tarand’s decision to run as a protest candidate did not prevent Toomas Hendrik Ilves from winning a second term as Estonia’s president in 2011, ERR recalled.

Estonia will hold its eighth presidential election this autumn. ERR is publishing a series revisiting the country’s seven previous presidential elections, with key participants discussing each contest. Indrek Tarand, Aivar Riisalu and Olari Koppel recalled the main developments of the 2011 election.

The Reform Party leadership decided in January 2010 to support Ilves if he chose to seek a second term. “The Reform Party believes that President Toomas Hendrik Ilves has been a brilliant advocate for Estonia in the world and remains the best head of state Estonia can find today,” then party leader and Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said.

In the parliamentary election held before the presidential contest, only four parties crossed the electoral threshold. The Reform Party won 33 seats, the Centre Party 26, the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union 23, and the Social Democratic Party 19.

When the Reform Party, the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union, and the Social Democratic Party agreed to support Ilves’ re-election, the numbers showed he had the at least 68 votes needed. The three parties held 75 seats in the Riigikogu, Estonia’s parliament.

In June 2011, however, independent Member of the European Parliament Indrek Tarand unexpectedly announced that he was willing to run for president in the name of preserving democracy.

“Personally, I do not like elections with one candidate. Even Russia has two presidential candidates,” Tarand told the press at the time.

Aivar Riisalu, a Centre Party member of the Riigikogu, had suggested that Tarand consider running. Edgar Savisaar, then leader of the Centre Party, said Tarand had a broad worldview, as a head of state should.

“He is not, and cannot be, only the Centre Party’s candidate. He guarantees the Centre Party nothing other than equal treatment, which our voters have earned and have been denied for years,” Savisaar said.

The Riigikogu convened to elect the president on August 29. In the first round, Ilves received 73 votes and Tarand received 25. Three ballots were invalid: two marked support for both candidates and one left blank.

Ilves was therefore decisively re-elected.

Tarand as a protest candidate

Recalling the events 15 years later, Tarand said the idea of his candidacy had originated with him.

“The idea was mine in that sense. The Centre Party was in difficulty at the time. All the others had reached an agreement, while they did not want to agree, but they also did not want to put forward one of their major stars, because party members apparently have this understanding that second place means nothing in a democracy. Aivar liked the idea, passed it on to Savisaar, and that is how it went,” Tarand said.

Tarand said he was satisfied that he had offered Estonia a presidential election with two candidates.

“In that sense, I was very satisfied. Elections are elections when there is a choice. Second place is still important in a democracy,” he said.

Tarand also recalled that attempts were made to associate him with the Centre Party because he was running with its support, but that this did not succeed in the long term.

Riisalu described Tarand as a protest candidate against the presidential election system in place at the time and still used today.