Meri secured re-election after 1996 presidential vote reached electoral college

Estonia’s 1996 presidential election went to the electoral college, where incumbent Lennart Meri defeated Arnold Rüütel, ERR reported in a historical review of the country’s previous presidential contests.

ERR is recalling the seven earlier presidential elections ahead of Estonia’s eighth presidential election this autumn. The 1996 contest is remembered by Rain Rosimannus, who led Meri’s re-election campaign, and Jaak Allik, who belonged to the Coalition Party at the time.

The political context had changed significantly since Meri won the 1992 election. Isamaa and the Estonian National Independence Party, which had supported Meri, won just 7.9 percent of the vote and eight seats in the 1995 parliamentary election. The Coalition Party and the Rural Union won by a wide margin and took 41 seats. One of their prominent campaign figures was Rüütel, who received 17,189 votes while standing in Võru, Valga and Põlva counties.

The 1996 president was elected under the same system used today. Parliament held the first vote. If no candidate won there, the decision moved to the electoral college, and if that also failed to produce a result, the choice returned to parliament.

Meri and Rüütel were nominated in the parliamentary rounds. Meri’s candidacy was proposed by representatives of the Reform Party, the Pro Patria Union, the Moderates, the Right-wingers and, somewhat unexpectedly, the Coalition Party.

Meri received 45 votes in the first round, 49 in the second and 52 in the third. The required majority was 68 votes, so the election moved to the electoral college for the first time.

The Pro Patria Union, formed when Isamaa and the Estonian National Independence Party merged after the 1995 election, changed its position before the electoral college vote. Although the party had clearly supported Meri’s re-election in August, it decided to nominate its own candidate, Tunne Kelam. The Centre Party put forward Siiri Oviir, while the Coalition Party backed computer scientist Enn Tõugu as an independent candidate instead of supporting either Meri or Rüütel.

The electoral college met for its first round on September 20 at Estonia Concert Hall. It had 374 members: 101 members of parliament and 273 representatives of local government councils. A candidate needed the support of at least 21 electoral college members to be nominated.

Meri led the first round with 136 votes, but did not reach the required majority. Rüütel, who received the second-highest total of 85 votes, joined him in the second round. Kelam was close behind with 76 votes.

Meri won the decisive round by 196 votes to Rüütel’s 126. He received more than half of the votes cast by participating electoral college members, exceeding the required minimum of 187, and was elected president. A further 44 ballots were unmarked and six were invalid.

Rosimannus: favourable conditions had to be created

Rosimannus, who led Meri’s re-election campaign, recalled that when he joined the presidential office as an adviser, Meri had fallen out with Mart Laar and Isamaa, which had campaigned for him in the previous election.

“Meri had tested the constitutional limits of the presidency and, at that point, practically had no supporters in parliament,” Rosimannus said.