Conservative opposition wins Latvian European elections: exit polls

Latvia's conservative opposition parties gained the most support in the Baltic country's first elections to the European Parliament while the governing coalition got a drubbing, exit polls showed after voting finished on Saturday.

A poll by the Baltic News Service showed the right-wing, free market oriented For Fatherland and Freedom garnered 30.46 percent of the vote, followed by the conservative New Era party with 19.65 percent.

The leftist Human Rights in United Latvia, which defends the country's Russian-speaking minority, got 15.25 percent.

The tendency was confirmed in a second poll by the LETA news agency, which showed For Fatherland and Freedom with 28.50 percent, New Era with 21.24 percent and Human Rights in United Latvia and 10.13 percent.

According to the BNS poll none of the current three governing coalition parties will get a representative in the European Parliament.

They are the Farmers and Greens of the current prime minister Indulis Emsis, credited with 2.93 percent of the vote, the centre-right People's Party with 4.64 percent and centrist Latvia's First with 2.73 percent.

The LETA poll differed slightly showing that the People's Party would get in with 6.75 percent of the vote.

The New Era party of former prime minister and central bank chief Einars Repse, which led a coalition government which resigned in February, has been pressing for fresh general elections in the country.

Latvians deliver stinging rebuff to cycling PM in EU elections

12 June 2004
ATTENTION -voting closes, exit poll result ///
Voters in Latvia appeared to have delivered a stinging rebuff to Latvia's coalition government and its cycling Green Prime Minister Indulis Emsis on Saturday, after voting closed in the country's first elections to the European Parliament.

Provisional results for the Latvian nine seats in the European Parliament were only due to be given late on Sunday, once voting ends throughout the 25-member states of the European Union.

But exit polls indicated that opposition groups had swept aside the centre-right coalition parties, which might not even end up with a single European deputy.

Some 30.5 percent voted for the opposition right-wing, free market-oriented Fatherland and Freedom party, an exit poll by the Baltic News Service indicated.

The centre-right New Era party of Einars Repse, who resigned as prime minister last October was in second place with 19.6 percent, the poll said.

New Era has been pressing for fresh general elections in the country.

The Russian-speaking minority's Human Rights in United Latvia also performed strongly with 15.2 percent, the nationwide poll of 3,000 voters found.

Neither the prime minister's Farmers and Greens Party, with 2.9 percent, nor its coalition partner, the pro-business People's Party (4.6 percent) managed to exceed the five percent threshold needed in the European elections in the poll.

Another exit poll by the Latvian news agency LETA indicated a similar outcome.

Latvia's electoral commission reported a low turnout of 38.1 percent only two hours before polling stations were due to close.

That compared with 72.5 percent at the same time during general elections in October 2002 and 68.9 percent in last September's referendum on joining the

Emsis had cycled along to his voting station and boldly stated that the turnout would be high in the "symbolic elections", while his party was aiming for one of the slots in the European Parliament.

"We are a new democracy, we are not indifferent like many people in all democracies, in old Europe, we are full of energy," Emsis, of the Farmers and Greens Party, told reporters in a Riga suburb.

On a lazy Baltic summer weekend, voters trickled into voting booths, with turnout at its highest in Riga.

"My pension is so small, I cry day and night," Vasilisa, 69, told AFP after she cast her ballot for a party supported by the Russian-speaking minority.

"My granddaughter in the United States comes from time to time to help me. If she didn't, I would die with my tiny pension, that's why I voted for Human Rights in United Latvia," she added.

One-third of the 2.4 million people in Latvia are Russian speakers, who have proved to be more sceptical of EU membership, although 67 percent of Latvians who turned out at a referendum last September voted in favour of joining.

The rights of Russian speakers, who had settled in Latvia until the country gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, remain a key political issue in the small Baltic state, which borders Russia.

About 40 people protested against education reform in Riga Saturday, holding EU flags draped with black crepe.

"My 14-year-old son cannot successfully learn mathematics and biology in Latvian," Tatjana, a 58-year-old protestor bitterly told AFP.

Key voters in Latvia were also in rural areas, where 32 percent of the small Baltic republic's population live.

Daiga, 38-year-old farmer from the southern village of Ruba said she had voted for the Fatherland and Freedom party, hoping "they will defend our national interests in Europe".

"I am not very interested in the EU issues, but I believe life will become better in the nearest future," she added.

Voting is due to take place in the other Baltic states, Estonia and Lithuania, on Sunday.

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