Lasnamäe, as the biggest region, has 14 seats on the 79-seat city council. It is a key prize for all political parties.

At the last election in 2021, former Mayor of Tallinn Mihhail Kõlvart was the most popular candidate in the region. He was voted into office with 27,663 votes, which was 58.2 percent of Lasnamäe's votes. It is expected that he will stand in the same seat this time.

In 2021, Kõlvart was the most popular candidate across the whole country by far.

But other parties are trying harder than before to win over the district.

On Friday, the Social Democratic Party (SDE) announced that its top candidate in Lasnamäe will be MEP Marina Kaljurand. She won 45,633 votes in total, over 10,000 more than any other candidate. At the last election, SDE's Andrus Vaarik stood in Lasnamäe and won 590 ballots.

Sources told ERR that former prime minister and current Isamaa MEP Jüri Ratas is the party's top candidate in Lasnamäe. Ratas was previously a member of the Center Party and was popular amongst its voters. He won 3,032 votes in 2021. Isamaa's last top Lasnamäe candidate was Tarmo Kruusimäe, who won 477 votes.

However, Isamaa press officer Viljar Voog did not confirm the information. "We will announce all district top candidates at once, and before that I cannot comment on who is running where," he said.

Ratas did not rule out the move, but said the board makes the final call. Isamaa chairman Urmas Reinsalu confirmed that he supports Ratas as the top candidate in Lasnamäe.

EKRE's top candidate in Lasnamäe is Eeva Helme. She previously stood in Lääneranna, Pärnu County, but is now registered as living in Tallinn. In 2021, the party's top candidate in Lasnamäe for EKRE was Mart Helme, who received 2,485 votes.

Eesti 200's top candidate in Lasnamäe is likely to be Aleksei Jašin, who is also expected to be Eesti 200's mayoral candidate in Tallinn. The party's last candidate was Ron Luvištšuk, who received 103 votes.

Reform will announce its Lasnamäe list and top candidate on Saturday. It's most popular candidate in the district in 2021 was Kristina Šmigun-Vähi won 1,716 votes.

Parempoolsed has not yet announced its top candidate in Lasnamäe.

"Our top candidate in Lasnamäe will be someone whom local residents know well. However, our list is not finalized yet. We are still collecting applications, so now is a great opportunity for good people to come and join our list," said Parempoolsed vice chairman Siim Kiisler.

Silver Kuusik, leader of the Estonian Nationalists and Conservatives party (ERK), said that his party has not yet worked on its Tallinn list. "We don't have a particularly strong position in Tallinn. Nothing is set. The mayoral candidate for Tallinn is also not yet decided," he said.

The local government council elections will be held on October 19.

Local election results in 2021

The last local election was won by the Center Party, which is expected to win again this year.

Center was the biggest party by a long way in Tallinn.

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