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Latvia will be holding a general election by no later than next year. An overview of the proportional representation system used to choose members of the Baltic republic's unicameral Parliament - the Saeima - is presented here; Latvia's party system will be reviewed in Part II of this presentation.
2006 Parliamentary Elections in Latvia, on Electoral Panorama, has more information about the election to the 9th Saeima. Latvia had been ruled by a four-party coalition cabinet since the election, but the government - headed by Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis since December 2007 - collapsed on February 20, 2009, after having survived a parliamentary vote of confidence on February 4. President Valdis Zatlers - who had threatened to propose dissolving the Saeima if by March 31 it didn't pass constitutional amendments that would give voters the right to propose the dissolution of parliament - subsequently appointed Valdis Dombrovskis as head of government. Dombrovskis, a former Finance Minister and a Member of the European Parliament since 2004, formed a five-party coalition government, which won a vote of confidence in the Saeima on March 12, while President Zatlers backed off from his earlier threat on March 31.
Nationwide- and constituency-level results are available here for the following Saeima elections:
The election statistics presented in this space come from reports published by the Central Election Commission of Latvia (CVK).
General Aspects of the Electoral System
The Parliament of the Republic of Latvia, the Saeima, is composed of 100 members directly elected by universal adult suffrage for a four-year term of office.
Members of the Saeima are elected by the pure Sainte-Laguë method of proportional representation (PR) in five multi-member constituencies. Voters cast a ballot for a constituency party list, and may indicate a preference (with a plus sign) for a candidate within a list, or reject a candidate therein by crossing his or her name out; the number of votes cast for a candidate equals the number of votes polled by the list in which he or she appears, minus the number of ballot papers in which his or her name has been crossed out, plus the number of ballot papers in which a preference has been indicated in his or her favor. In order to participate in the distribution of Saeima seats, party lists must obtain at least five percent of all valid votes cast at the national level, including blank ballots.
- Election Resources on the Internet: Latvia
- Is Latvia still headed for an early election?, on Global Economy Matters
- The Saeima, in Latvian and English
Copyright © 2009 Manuel
Álvarez-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.
Last update: April 14, 2009.