Estonian presidential election, 2016

An indirect election took place in Estonia in 2016 to elect the president of Estonia, who is the country's head of state. The Riigikogu — the Parliament of Estonia — elected Kersti Kaljulaid to be the next head of state of Estonia to succeed Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who had served his second and final term as President. (Ilves was term-limited.) Kaljulaid is the first female head of state of Estonia.

Somewhat unusually, Kaljulaid was elected President only after other candidates could not be elected in three rounds of parliamentary voting and two rounds of voting by an electoral college consisting of members of Parliament and representatives of local governments of Estonia.

By law, the president of Estonia is indirectly elected. The Riigikogu (Parliament) has the task of electing the president in the first instance. If no candidate received the required supermajority of two-thirds (68 votes out of 101), the president is selected by an electoral college consisting of MPs and representatives of local (municipal) governments. Failing that, the process is to return to the parliament yet again.

The first three rounds of the election took place in the Riigikogu on 29 August 2016 (first round) and 30 August 2016 (second and third rounds). Since no candidate received the required supermajority in three balloting rounds, an electoral college convened on 24 September consisting of members of Riigikogu and representatives of Estonia’s local governments. The electoral college voted twice, but no candidate managed to reach an absolute majority of 168 votes. Thus, the next round of the election returned to Riigikogu on 3 October. The parliament elected Kersti Kaljulaid, then the country's representative to the European Court of Auditors, as the next President of Estonia.

The incumbent, President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, having served the maximum two terms, was not eligible to run for re-election.

Candidates could be nominated by one-fifth of the members of Riigikogu (21 MPs).

On 30 May 2016, Social Democratic Party endorsed Eiki Nestor as the party’s candidate, but lacked MPs to officially support the bid. Same day the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union's Parliamentary Group endorsed Allar Jõks. On 8 August, Jõks was also endorsed by the Estonian Free Party, after which he had enough backing for official candidacy.

...
Wikipedia