Center-Right Parties Win Estonia Vote

TALLINN, Estonia — A center-right coalition of anti-Communist reformers won enough seats in Parliament to form a new government and select Estonia’s first post-Soviet president, according to election results Monday.

Voters gave the country’s current president and former Communist Party chief, Arnold F. Ruutel, a wide lead Sunday in the Baltic nation’s first elections since it won independence from the Soviet Union last year.

But his percentage was not enough to avoid a runoff in Parliament, where Ruutel is expected to lose.

With about 98% of the vote counted, Ruutel had 42.5%, compared with 28.8% for the second-place finisher, former Foreign Minister Lennart Meri, election officials said.