Estonia PM’s party wins re-election
Baltic state’s prime minister says he favours keeping ruling centre-right coalition in place.
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| Reform Party leader Ansip has held the premiership of the Baltic state since 2005 [Reuters] |
Andrus Ansip, Estonia’s prime minister, has won his country’s election and says that he hopes to keep the current centre-right coalition in power.
Ansip’s Reform Party and its right-wing partner IRL captured 56 of parliament’s 101 seats in the Sunday ballot, six more than the coalition currently controls.
The coalition saw Estonia through its worst-ever economic crisis and onto a path out of recession. It also successfully launched the euro in January.
“This coalition between Reform Party and IRL has been really fruitful during all those good years but also during difficult times,” Ansip was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
“I prefer to continue with the same coalition.”
Ansip has been in office since a 2005 reshuffle, a year after Estonia joined the European Union.
The main opposition Centre Party won 26 seats and the centrist Social Democrats won 19 seats, according to the preliminary results.
A total of 62.9 per cent of Estonia’s 912,565-strong electorate took part in the vote, up from 61 per cent in the 2007 general election, the figures showed.