Estonia's pro-NATO Reform party wins vote

TALLINN: Estonia's governing pro-NATO Reform party came top in parliamentary elections on Sunday (Mar 1), fought amid concerns over a militarily resurgent Russia, but analysts warned that forging a coalition would be challenging.

President Toomas Hendrik Ilves is expected to ask Reform chief, outgoing Prime Minister Taavi Roivas, to build a coalition on the basis of the 30 seats his party won in the 101-member parliament.

The centrist Reform party lost three seats, according to the official results. Meanwhile the opposition pro-Kremlin Centre party was up one seat to 27 and the outgoing Social Democrat junior coalition partners down four to 15.

"Reform will be able to form a government ... (but) coalition talks might be complicated," leading Estonian political commentator Ahto Lobjakas told AFP, noting increased volatility with six parties now in parliament, up from the previous four.

The parliamentary newcomers are a free-market liberal party and an anti-immigration conservative party, who secured 15 seats between them.

"In terms of Estonia's pro-Western orientation, commitment to EU, NATO, all this will remain and possibly become more pronounced," he added, describing the entry of the two newcomers as a swing to the right.

Moscow's annexation of Crimea last year and its meddling in eastern Ukraine have galvanised the European Union, including eurozone member Estonia where a quarter of the 1.3 million population are ethnic Russian.

Military manoeuvres by Moscow on Estonia's border just days ahead of the vote further stoked deep concerns in Europe that the Kremlin could attempt to destabilise countries that were in its orbit during Soviet times.

NATO is countering the moves by boosting defences on Europe's eastern flank with a spearhead force of 5,000 troops and command centres in six formerly communist members of the alliance, including one in Estonia.

"If they (the Russians) come in here, Estonia can't do anything ... I'm not sure NATO will help us out," Pyotr Sirotkin, a 25-year-old student at Tallinn University, told AFP as he cast his ballot in the capital.

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Estonia's pro-NATO Reform party wins vote