teisipäev, veebruar 21, 2006

Back to Politics

So those are the latest numbers from TNS Emor. You can read the breakdown here, but the general picture is that Keskerakond has 22 percent, Reform 16 percent, Isamaa has 11 percent, Rahvaliit has 6 percent, SDE has 5 percent, and Res Publica has 3 percent. The 2007 election is one year away.

The big shocker here is the poor performance of Res Publica. You may remember their entry by the giant signs requesting Estonians to "vali kord" - choose order - in the 2003 elections. Res Publica went on to form the new government with 24.6 percent of the popular vote, which fell apart in April 2005 following a series of resignations and sackings of ministers.

The funny thing though is although Res Publica has the least support of the Estonian people, they still have 28 seats in parliament. This means that 2007 could be a real watershed election for Estonia. I am not sure what Res Publica stands for, although they seem to be something of a younger, cooler version of the Reform Party. But, as I have said a couple of times, why does Estonia need two right wing parties splitting the right wing vote and handing possible future elections to the Center Party? It doesn't seem to make sense politically.

As for the other parties, the SDE has climbed significantly since 2003, when it got less than 1 percent of the vote. In Estonia, SDE is led by Ivari Padar, but I get most of my information on their stances by reading the commentery of European MP Toomas Hendrik Ilves. Rahvaliit may have suffered a set back due to criticism over Villu Reiljan's handling of the recent oil spill off the Estonian coast. Anyway, with one year away from the election, I don't get the sense that Estonians are particularly enthused about any particular party or candidate. Edgar Savisaar seems to be the "devil we know," rather than an emerging, new leader.

As for president, things have been quiet on the Rüütel front. Anybody else got any hot tips on the presidency?

2 kommentaari:

mina ütles ...

http://www.respublica.ee/?id=673

Eppppp ütles ...

I hope for T.H.Ilves.