1990 Estonian Supreme Soviet election

1990 Estonian Supreme Soviet election

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All 105 seats in the Supreme Soviet
53 seats needed for a majority
Turnout78.2%
  Majority party Minority party Third party
 
Leader Edgar Savisaar Vaino Väljas
Party Popular Front Communist Party of Estonia – Free Estonia Joint Soviet of Work Collectives
Leader since 1 October 1988 16 June 1988
Seats won 43 25 25
Seat change New Decrease 180 New
Percentage 40.95% 25.71% 23.81%

Chairman of the Council of Ministers before election

Indrek Toome
CPSU

Prime Minister after election

Edgar Savisaar
Popular Front

Elections to the Supreme Soviet were held in the Estonian SSR on 18 March 1990.[1] Altogether 392 candidates ran for the Soviet-style legislature's 105 seats, of which four were pre-allocated to the military districts of the Soviet Army. The pro-independence Popular Front won the plurality (43 seats). The coalition of the reformed Estonian communists, who favored independence but close relations with the USSR and were supported by Indrek Toome[2] who was running under the Free Estonia banner,[3] won 27 seats. The anti-independence, pro-Moscow "Joint Soviet of Work Collectives", representing mostly the ethnic Russian immigrant minority in Estonia, won 25 seats. During its first session, the new legislature elected the former Communist Party member Arnold Rüütel as its chairman, allowing him to stay as the nominal leader of Estonia (real powers mostly lay with the prime minister).

The elected parliament made some of the most important decisions in the modern Estonian history, such as the on 30 March 1990 declaration of a period of transition to restore full independence from the Soviet Union, and the 20 August 1991 declaration to confirm the restoration of the country's full independence.

  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p574 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. ^ Silver, Brian D.; Titma, Mikk (1996). "Support for an Independent Estonia". International Journal of Sociology. 26 (2): 3–24. doi:10.1080/15579336.1996.11770136. JSTOR 20628474.
  3. ^ Payerhin, Marek (2016-09-02). Nordic, Central, and Southeastern Europe 2016-2017. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 135. ISBN 9781475828979.