Municipal elections in Latvia bring little change in 7 largest cities

Throughout this week municipal elections took place in Latvian cities, towns and rural districts. BNN has compiled a summary of preliminary election results in the capital Riga and six other largest cities, as released by the Central Election Commission of Latvia on Sunday, June 4.

Riga

Preliminary results of the municipal election in the Latvian capital, show that over a half of votes, 50.85%, have gone to the joint list of Harmony and Honour to Serve Riga, which was led by long-time Mayor Nils Ušakovs, who, by the way, has trouble recognising the Soviet occupation of Latvia last century.

This list of politicians might have gained 32 seats in the 60-seat Council of Riga City. The remaining 28 seats will be divided among Latvian Regional Alliance-For Development of Latvia (13.33%), New Conservative Party (13.66%), National Alliance (9.24%) and Unity with (6.26%).

Daugavpils

Voters in the largest city in Latgale region have shown most support – 28.57% – to Latgale Party led by current Mayor Jānis Lāčplēsis. The party is followed closely by Harmony with 28.16% and Our Party with 19.34% of votes.

Liepāja

The Baltic Sea port city of Liepāja has seen another election won by long-time Mayor Uldis Sesks and his Liepāja Party having attracted 31.26% of votes. Latvian Regional Alliance came second with 29.15% and Harmony also surpassed the 5% election threshold with 19.58% of votes.

Jelgava

In the central Latvian city Jelgava, the Union of Greens and Farmers led by current Mayor Andris Rāviņš won the election with 41.54% of votes, followed by Harmony with 19.62%, National Alliance with 11.84%, Unity with 9.05% and Latvian Regional Alliance with 8.45% of votes.

Jūrmala

Greens and farmers have also won most votes in Jūrmala, where their support has decreased from 35.85% to 30.77% under the reign of Gatis Truksnis. Other parties that have surpassed the election threshold in the picturesque seaside resort town are the joint election list of For You Jūrmala and the New Conservative Party with 21.28% of votes, Harmony 18.32% and National Alliance with 10.61% of votes.

Ventspils

In the second largest port city of Kurzeme, another landslide victory has been reached by the political party For Latvia and Ventspils, which is led by long-time Mayor Aivars Lembergs, who is accused of a number of serious crimes.

The party attracted 62.13% of votes even though Lembergs has previously been removed from the post.

The second largest voter backing – 24.59% – in Ventspils was acquired by the joint election list of National Alliance, Unity and Latvian Regional Alliance.

Rēzekne

In the second largest city of Latgale region, Rēzekne, the socal-democratic party Harmony, which has been at power there for eight years, has won with 59.03% of votes. It is followed by the joint list of Latgale Party, National Alliance and Unity with 12.18%, the Union of Greens and Farmers with 7.6% and United Rēzekne with 6.52% of votes, preliminary results show.

BNN 

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