Tallinn, 5 March 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Voting got under way in Estonia on Sunday, for parliamentary elections that are heavily overshadowed by the conflict in Ukraine.

Polls opened at 8 am (0600 GMT) for the nation's 965,000 eligible voters to cast their ballots for an overall 101 seats in the Riigikogu legislature.

First results are expected in the night from Sunday to Monday.

Nine parties are running in the ninth election since Estonia became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991. None is likely to win an absolute majority.

Opinion polls have put the liberal Reform Party of Prime Minister Kaja Kallas in the lead. Kallas, who became the first woman to head Estonia's government in 2021, is seen as one of the European Union's most resolute supporters of Kiev in its efforts to fight off the full-scale invasion launched by Russia a year ago.

Kallas has been a vocal advocate for EU sanctions against Moscow and Western arms deliveries to Kiev. She has also called for a strengthening of NATO's eastern flank against threats from Russia, which borders Estonia. 

While Kallas has been seen as the preferred candidate to lead the government, it is unclear whether her three-party alliance with the Social Democrats and conservative Isamaa party can hold on to its parliamentary majority. 

Possible coalitions are likely to be determined by how the two opposition forces, the right-wing populist party EKRE and the left-wing Centre Party, perform in the elections. 

Observers were expecting the formation of a new government to be difficult. 

Estonians may also cast their ballots online, an option the government introduced in 2005 as the first country in Europe to do so. Before election day, more than a quarter of those eligible had already voted online.