Cablegate: The Rules for Latvia's October 7 Parliamentary Elections

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TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KDEM LG
SUBJECT: The rules for Latvia's October 7 parliamentary elections

Ref: Riga 584

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1. Summary. Latvia will hold its fifth post-Soviet elections to
the Saeima, the 100-member parliament, on Saturday, October 7. The
country uses a modified proportional representation system and any
party that collects at least five percent of votes cast nationally
wins seats in the Saeima. Out of nineteen parties competing, five
to eight parties will probably be represented in a fragmented
parliament, with no single party likely to win more than 25 or so
seats. End summary.

2. Latvia will hold parliamentary elections on Saturday, October 7.
This is the first in a series of cables on the elections and looks
at the rules of the game.

3. All citizens of Latvia who are at least 18 years old have the
right to vote except for prisoners and those legally deemed to be
mentally incapacitated. There are some 1.4 million voters in Latvia
now. Approximately seventy-eight percent of eligible voters are
ethnic Latvians; most of the remainder (slightly less than twenty
percent of all voters) are ethnic Russians.

4. Any citizen of Latvia who is at least 21 years old can run for
the Saeima except for members of several categories spelled out in
the election law. In addition to prisoners and the mentally
incapacitated, the exceptions include: current or former staff
members of secret, intelligence and counter-intelligence services of
the former USSR, the Latvian SSR or foreign countries and persons
who continued to be active in the Soviet Communist party or other
pro-Soviet organizations after January 13, 1991. Former KGB
informers and collaborators are not barred from standing for
parliament.

5. Nineteen separate political parties submitted candidate lists
for the elections. Latvia has strict campaign spending laws that
limit any one party's expenditures to 280,000 Lats (roughly USD
500,000) for the campaign. This has led to some creative financing
schemes somewhat akin to soft money expenditures in the U.S.
(reftel). Voters may pick one list and make changes within that list
only by adding "plus" signs or crossing out names.

6. Members are chosen from five electoral districts, corresponding
to the four regions of Latvia (Kurzeme, Zemgale, Vidzeme and
Latgale) with an additional district for the capital, Riga. Based
on population numbers, seats have been assigned to each district:
Riga - 29, Kurzeme (western Latvia) - 14, Zemgale (central Latvia) -
15, Vidzeme (northeastern Latvia) - 26, Latgale (southeastern
Latvia) - 16. Candidates need not reside in the district where they
campaign. Moreover, parties are free (and most parties choose) to
run some of their leading candidates in more than one district.
Citizens are not obliged to vote in the constituency where they
reside and some parties will bus voters to other districts where
they think they may benefit from some additional votes. That is a
perfectly legal practice.

7. Seats are allocated within each district on the basis of
proportional representation among those parties which receive more
than five-percent of the vote nationwide. The seat allocation is
calculated within each constituency using a complex system
considered to be weighted slightly in favor of major parties.
Experience in the previous elections showed that the number of seats
for each faction roughly corresponded to the percentage of votes
received plus a share of the votes "wasted" on those parties that
did not clear the five-percent barrier. We expect by Sunday October
8 to have a pretty good idea of which patries have been elected to
parliament and how many seats each will receive.

8. While voters can only choose one party list, they can show
preference or distaste for individual candidates on their chosen
party list by marking a plus by the names of candidates they favor,
or crossing out the ones they do not like. Once the electoral
commission calculates how many seats each candidate list has won in
each of the five electoral districts, voter preferences will help
determine which candidates actually get the seats. The sequence of
candidates on each list will ultimately be based on the number of
that party's supporters either adding a "plus" or crossing out
candidates' names.

9. Final results from the election, including which specific
candidates have been elected, may take as long as two weeks.
President Vaira Vike-Freiberga then has the constitutional
responsibility for nominating one individual to try to set up a new
government that he/she would head as prime minister. The president
is not required to choose the leader of the largest faction but is
normally expected to allow the winners to take the first shot at
forming a cabinet.

10. The new Saeima will first meet on November 7 to begin
considering organizational matters (election of a speaker, etc.) as
well as the proposed new government. The current Saeima can
continue to meet as a lame duck legislature until that time and is
likely to do so. The proposed new government then requires approval
from an absolute majority of those present and voting before it can

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take office. Until a new team is in place, the current center-right
minority government led by Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis will
remain in a caretaker capacity.
BAILEY

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