Latvia’s Pro-Russian Party Likely to Remain Out of Government

World | October 5, 2014, Sunday // 17:09
Bulgaria: Latvia’s Pro-Russian Party Likely to Remain Out of Government Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujumawho talks to media after casting her vote in parliamentary elections in Riga, Latvia, 4 October 2014. Photo EPA/BGNES

A party mainly backed by ethnic Russians has won most votes in Latvia’s parliamentary elections on Saturday but is unlikely to secure a role in government.

With nearly all votes counted on Sunday, the current centre-right ruling coalition of three parties had won about 58% between them and is widely expected to remain in power.

The election result will give the coalition 61 of the 100 seats in parliament, the election commission said on Sunday. That is up from the 47 seats the three parties won between them in the last election in 2011. 

The Harmony party, which is favouring closer ties with Moscow, while maintaining Latvia’s membership of the EU and NATO, had about 23%. The result will give Harmony about a quarter of the seats in parliament, six seats short of the number of representatives Harmony had in the old chamber.

At the last  elections held in 2011, the centre-left Harmony party won 28 percent of the vote and was also the largest single party in parliament but it was kept out of a coalition government of ethnic Latvian parties reluctant to team up with what is seen as the ‘Russian party’.

According to analysts, the ruling coalition has increased its representation in parliament on the back of Latvia’s stable economy and mounting anxiety over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and Moscow’s support for pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Ethnic Russians, who make up about a quarter of Latvia's population of two million, have overwhelmingly backed the Harmony party which insists that Russian should become Latvia's second official language. Harmony also didn’t support a recent resolution in parliament supporting Ukraine’s government against what was described as "Russian aggression".

The Harmony leader, ethnic Russian Nils Ushakov, said after the vote that Latvia’s President Andris Berzins must ask the biggest party in parliament to have the first try at forming the next government.

But with the possible addition of a fourth member - the Alliance of Regions of Latvia, the current ruling coalition will have a comfortable majority in parliament and political analysts expect the president to ask the coalition to carry on in government.

 

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Tags: Latvia, elections, Harmony, ethnic Russians, ruling coalition, Ukraine

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