TALLINN, SEPTEMBER 2: Estonia’s Parliament on Wednesday elected Chancellor of Justice Ülle Madise as the country’s next President, with 71 members of the 101-seat Riigikogu supporting her in a secret ballot.
Ms. Madise secured more than the two-thirds majority, or 68 votes, required for election. A total of 78 MPs took part in the voting, while seven ballot papers were left unmarked. Her candidature had been proposed by 75 members of Parliament.
Ms. Madise, a constitutional lawyer and legal scholar, will become Estonia’s seventh President and the second woman to hold the office. She has served as the country’s Chancellor of Justice since 2015.
The election followed incumbent President Alar Karis’s decision not to seek a second term. Ms. Madise emerged as a consensus, non-partisan candidate and received support from several major political parties.
She will assume office on October 12. In her address to Parliament after the election, Ms. Madise said she would work to justify the trust placed in her and stressed the importance of mutual understanding and responsibility.
