Oh dear oh dear oh dear. Today closed the final round of voting in the Riigikogu, the Estonian parliament, for the next president, who will serve a five year term as the country's head of state.
Unfortunately, as expected, no candidate was selected. Social Democrat Toomas-Hendrik Ilves, a former foreign minister and current member of the European Parliament received 64 votes, four less than needed to secure the two thirds backing of the parliament for president.
That means that the decision over who will become the next president will now go to the Valimiskogu, the electoral college, where the parliament along with several hundred members of municipal councils will vote, begining in September, on a series of candidates.
This is not unexpected. While Ilves received the backing of three of Estonia's major parties - the Reform Party, the Isamaa-Res Publica Alliance, and the Social Democrats - parliamentary members from the two center-left parties - the Center Party and the Estonian People's Party, did not even cast votes in the electoral rounds in parliament.
This is part of their plan to send their favorite candidate - incumbent and onetime head of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic Arnold Rüütel - to the electoral college where he has a better chance of getting elected.
Supporters of Ilves cried foul, saying that the Center Party and the People's Union had a constitutional duty to vote. The Center Party said that they could not support either candidate as Rüütel is their agreed candidate. Rüütel, aged 78, has declined to formally run for office, but said he was accept a second term if chosen in the electoral round.
That's right. He refused to run, but agreed to run if the parliament failed to elect a new president. His supporters then forced the parliament to fail in its duties in order to get their candidate closer to reelection.
Now Estonians will have to wait until late September to find out who their next president will be. That's democracy. Ain't it grand?!