Estonian Parliament Starts Election of Country's President - Press Service

The Estonian parliament, Riigikogu, started on Monday the election of the country's president, with the only nominee on the list, Riigikogu's press service said.

TALLINN (Sputnik) — The only candidate for the post is Kersti Kaljulaid, who used to serve as Estonia's representative in the European Court of Auditors.

Kaljulaid needs to gain the support of at least 68 out of 101 lawmakers of the parliament to win the office.

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. However, neither the parliament nor the college has succeeded in choosing the president and the process has started again.

Toomas Hendrik Ilves, the incumbent president, is due to step down in November. He is serving his second consecutive term and the country's constitution forbids running for a third time.