This means Madise has 63 signatures in her favor as a candidate, where 21 are needed.

If she can count on all 63 MPs to vote for her in the Riigikogu secret ballots on September 2-3, that makes her five votes short of being elected president.

Mart Võrklaev told ERR he decided after meeting Madise separately from her meeting with the Reform Party to back her presidential bid. He also stated he would vote for her on September 2, when the first ballot (of three) takes place.

"First of all, I am glad that Ms Madise took the time and also met personally with those who had doubts. In the end, each member of the Riigikogu elects the president individually, according to their conscience in a secret ballot; it is not one faction or another that elects the president," Võrklaev, a former finance minister, told ERR.

"After two meetings, yesterday and today with the faction, I found the confidence that by nominating Ülle Madise as a presidential candidate and writing in her name on the ballot paper on September 2, I will be making a good and right choice for Estonia and our people," Võrklaev said.

As of Thursday last week, Võrklaev told ERR that he was still undecided ahead of meeting Madise, adding that the other front-runner candidate at present, Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) Rector Tiit Land, was also a "worthy candidate."

Madise now has the backing of all governmental (Reform and Eesti 200) MPs, plus nearly all Social Democratic Party (SDE) MPs. The one exception from SDE is Züleyxa Izmailova, who said last week she would consider the Madise question further after the latter had met with the SDE Riigikogu faction. That meeting took place on Monday. Izmailova could not be reached by ERR at the time of writing.

Reform and Eesti 200 both lost an MP each at the start of last week, and these have joined the ranks of the independent MPs, who now number 20. As a minimum of 68 votes are needed at the 101-seat Riigikogu, this represents a significant bloc. Isamaa and the Center Party have met with both Land and Madise but have not formally announced their support for either, while the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) have put forward founder Mart Helme as candidate.

The window for formal nominations of candidates who have received at least 21 MPs' signatures in favor runs this Friday, August 21, to the following Monday, August 24.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!