Summary

Section 79 of the Constitution provides the general framework for election of the President of the Republic: the requirements for candidates, the right to nominate a candidate, and the electoral procedure in the Riigikogu (parliament) and potentially thereafter in the electoral body. While the procedure set out in the Constitution may at first seem rather detailed, upon analysis it becomes evident that a number of questions have been left unanswered by the Constitutional Assembly. The most significant questions relate to the repeated inability of the Riigikogu to elect the head of state and the convention of the electoral body.

The first President of the Republic Election Act was passed on 9 July 1992, and the second on 10 April 1996. The law of 1996 has been amended only once during the 13 years it has been in force, and these were only minor amendments. However, the fact that a law has remained in force unamended for a significant period of time does not necessarily mean that its application in practice is unproblematic. The contradictions and lacunae in the President of the Republic Election Act are also evident from the prolific correspondence between the Riigikogu, the National Election Committee and the Chancellor of Justice. A general sense of dissatisfaction with the current law is also demonstrated by the recurring debate on direct election of the President.

In this article, the author analyses the system for election of the President of the Republic to reveal whether and how the rules that were drafted by the Constitutional Assembly and adopted by the people in 1992 operate in practice. To do so, the author also assesses whether rules other than those set out in the current President of the Republic Election Act could serve to elaborate the electoral provisions set out in Section 79 of the Constitution.