Estonia

The 101 members of the unicameral Estonian Parliament (Riigikogu ~ "State Assembly") are elected every 4 years in a (nearly) proportional electoral system from open lists in 12 constituencies. The national-level electoral threshold is 5%, which applies to constituency seats, except for candidates elected directly.

The smallest number of seats in the 12 constituencies is 6, and the largest is 17. Seats can be obtained by reaching a simple quota (Hare quota) within the constituency. The remaining seats are distributed among closed national lists in accordance with the principle of seat-linkage compensation (taking into account the seats already obtained), here a modified D'Hondt method is used.

Voters can vote for one candidate within the chosen (constituency) list. If a candidate reaches the quota in their district, they are directly elected even if the candidate's list (party) does not reach the national threshold. 

The president (head of state) is elected indirectly. More soon.

MEPs from Estonia are elected every 5 years (at the same time as in the other EU member states). The entire country forms one constituency, in which 7 MEPs were elected in 2024. Due to "degressive proportionality", Estonian voters have significantly more representatives per capita than the EU average.

The main principle in the election of the Parliament (within the countries) is proportionality: by default, only a proportional system can be used, but beyond this, the member states decide for themselves what type. Estonia, like most member states, uses an open-list proportional system. This means that voters can vote not only for a party list, but also for a candidate on the list, thus allowing them the chance to collectively change the predetermined order of the candidates. The allocation of seats between parties is done using the the D'Hondt (Jefferson) method. There is no legal electoral threshold, but in practice (due to the 7 seats) a minimum of about 8.5% is required to obtain a seat.

The minimum age for active suffrage (the right to vote) is 18 years, and for passive suffrage (standing for election) is 21 years. Voting not compulsory, in-person voting at embassies is possible (from other EU member states and third countries) as is postal voting and online voting, however, proxy voting is not possible.

This is the description of the electoral system of Estonia as of 11.06.2026 on Electoral Knowledgebase. Sources and further information on this topic:

• 2024 European Parliament elections: National rules (European Parliament)

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