In January 2019, the National Electoral Committee announced that ten political parties and fourteen individual candidates had registered to take part in the 2019 parliamentary election.

[5] On 9 September 2016 Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marina Kaljurand, announced her resignation to run independently in the 2016 Estonian presidential election.

On 7 November 2016, the Social Democrats and the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union announced that they were asking Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas to resign and were planning on negotiating a new majority government.

[11] On 6 December 2016, Minister of Rural Affairs, Martin Repinski, resigned due to massive media criticism of the questionable business practices of his goat farm.

[13] On 24 May 2017, Minister of Public Administration, Mihhail Korb, resigned, in the interests of the health of the coalition, after the scandal that erupted following his comment on his lack of support for Estonia's NATO membership.

[16] Aab himself resigned on 17 April 2018 after being caught by Police speeding (73 km/h in 50 km/h zone) and driving under the influence (blood alcohol level 0.28‰)[17] and was replaced with Janek Mäggi, until then non-partisan public relations specialist.

[18] On 7 April 2018, Minister of Health and Labour, Jevgeni Ossinovski, announced his intention to resign in order to focus on leading the Social Democratic Party in the March 2019 elections.

[23][24] The Estonian National Electoral Committee announced that ten political parties and 14 individual candidates registered to take part in the 2019 parliamentary election.

[26] far-right right-wing From January 23, 2019 until election day on March 3, it was prohibited to advertise an individual candidate, political party, or a person running on a party list, or their logo or other distinguishing mark or program on the inside or outside of a building, facility, public transport vehicle, or taxi, as well as other outdoor political advertising.

called for the use of science-based argumentation in the election campaign with the aim of highlighting the importance of proving politicians' claims.

The website of the event www.kussatead.ee was used gather notes about cases where politicians' statements were not based on facts, evidence or science-based arguments.

[36] ERR,[37] Delfi[38] and Postimees[39] developed general electoral compasses designed to help a voter determine the degree to which his or her views resemble those of various parties and candidates.

[42] The questions of Postimees' election compass "Hääleandja" (vote-giver) were selected by the daily's editors together with political scientist Martin Mölder, who based it on value assessment surveys commissioned by the Institute for Social Studies from Turu-uuringute AS.

[43] Psychologist Kenn Konstabel and Mai Beilmann, president of the Association of Estonian Sociologists, expressed doubts about the neutrality of the questions used in the election compass and their applicability as a measure of worldview, the role of the Institute for Social Studies, and the validity of Mölder's explanations.

[46][47] However, political scientist Kristjan Vassil said that he hadn't seen any "highly biased behavior or coding", and he commended its value-based approach.

[48] The Ministry of Finance assessed the expected financial impact of the political parties' election platform promises on the state budget and their pragmatism, including their compliance with the Estonian Constitution and European Union law.

[49][50][51] According to the Ministry of Finance, 7 of Estonia 200's, 6 of EKRE's, 5 of the Free Party's and 2 of the Social Democrats' promises were against either the Estonian Constitution or EU law.

[66] When I said before that it would be impossible for me to cooperate with a political party which cuts heads off, doesn't agree to certain nationalities or races, then EKRE has indeed said those things.

[67]The subsequent reversal of his stance and the inclusion of EKRE by Ratas in coalition talks after the elections was met with local and international criticism.

Ratas has countered that his first duty is to look for ways to get his party included in the government in order to be able to work for the benefit of his voters, and that the coalition would continue to firmly support the EU and NATO, and would be sending out messages of tolerance.

Mihhail Kõlvart, popular among Russian-speaking voters, said the Centre Party cannot govern with the Conservative People's policy on languages in Estonia.

[73][74][75] The decision to include the Conservative People's Party (EKRE) was also criticised in a letter written by Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the ALDE group in the European Parliament (the group in which Ratas' Centre Party is a member), suggesting that Ratas should break off coalition talks with the national-conservative EKRE.

Kallas stated that she was considering two options, either inviting another party (except EKRE) to join the coalition or forming a minority government with the Social Democrats.

[84][85][86] On 17 April, Estonia's parliament approved the proposed coalition between Centre, EKRE and Isamaa, with a vote of 55–44, giving Jüri Ratas the chance to form a government.