Riigikogu elected UT Council Chair Kersti Kaljulaid president of Estonia

On 3 October 2016 the Riigikogu elected Kersti Kaljulaid president of Estonia. 81 members of the Riigikogu voted for Kersti Kaljulaid.

Kersti Kaljulaid has been chair of UT Council since 2011 until assuming the office of the president.

In an interview to Aktuaalne Kaamera on 2 October, Rector Volli Kalm said that Kersti Kaljulaid has great experience with leading people and maintaining the focus in important discussions. “She is able to stay calm and in control even when others have a heart rate of 120. It is a skill of its own to remain calm in heated discussions,” said Kalm.

The president assumes office by swearing an oath to the people of Estonia before the Riigikogu. In accordance with section 84 of the Constitution of Estonia, upon assuming the office of the president, the authority and duties of the president in all elected or appointed offices previously held by him or her are terminated, and he or she suspends his or her membership in any political party for the duration of his or her term of office. Therefore, Kersti Kaljulaid’s work as chair of the current UT Council will also come to an end. Hopefully, it will become clear in the coming days how the council’s work will be organised until the end of the year. It has not been discussed yet with the Minister of Education and Research whether a substitute member will be appointed to the council for the last two sessions or will the work be organised in another way. The mandate of the first council ends on 31 December 2016, you can read about the council elections on the intranet.

On its meeting on 2 October, the National Electoral Committee registered Kersti Kaljulaid as the presidential candidate in the first round of voting in the Riigikogu. Read more about the 2016 presidential elections on the ERR news website.

Kersti Kaljulaid graduated from the University of Tartu in biology cum laude in 1992 and in 2001 she defended her MBA in business administration. She has worked at Hansapank, as a financial advisor for the Prime Minister’s Office and as director of the Iru electric power plant for Eesti Energia. In 2004–2016 she was member of the European Court of Auditors.