Latvia votes today in 15th Saeima parliamentary election
Latvians vote today in the 15th Saeima parliamentary election, with 14 candidate lists contesting 100 seats across five electoral districts; polls close at 8pm.
RIGA — Latvia holds its 15th Saeima parliamentary election today, Saturday 3 October, with polling stations open from 8am to 8pm local time, the country’s Central Election Commission confirms via Sunday Guardian Live.
Voters will elect all 100 members of the Saeima, with 51 seats needed for a majority, according to Wikipedia’s election overview. A total of 14 candidate lists and 1,434 candidates are contesting the seats (Sunday Guardian Live).
Seats are allocated by open-list proportional representation across five electoral districts — Riga, Vidzeme, Zemgale, Latgale and Kurzeme — with a 5% national threshold, and voters may cast positive or negative preference votes for individual candidates (Wikipedia).
Advance voting ran from 28 September to 2 October, and pre-election-day turnout reached 5.66% of eligible voters, including postal votes, UA.News reported, citing LSM.
Incumbent prime minister Andris Kulbergs leads the United List (AS) into the vote (Wikipedia). Preliminary results are expected from Saturday evening as polling stations report, with final official results due by 12 October (Sunday Guardian Live). The newly elected 15th Saeima will hold its first sitting on 3 November (Daily Baltic).
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