With around 99% of the votes counted in Latvia’s 15th Saeima election, the United List (AS) has secured a decisive victory, winning 42 seats in parliament.
The number of seats won by AS is the best result achieved by any political force in a Saeima election since the restoration of Latvia’s independence. By comparison, Latvian Way won 36 seats in 1993, Unity secured 33 seats in 2010, while Harmony won 31 seats in the 2011 snap election.
Meanwhile, voter turnout in the 15th Saeima election was the lowest since the restoration of independence – only 51.8% of eligible voters participated this year.
Votes still need to be counted by just 30 postal voting commissions, while the counting of positive and negative candidate marks still needs to be completed at a larger number of polling stations.
Preliminary election results show that only six parties will enter the next Saeima, while the Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS) is the first political force to fall short of the 5% electoral threshold.
With the vote count effectively complete, AS has received 35.3% of the vote. Latvia First (LPV) is in second place with 13.1%, followed by the Sovereign Power/Young Latvians alliance (SV/AJ) with 11.74%.
The National Alliance (NA) received 8.91% of the vote, the Progressives 7.81%, and New Unity (JV) 6.34%.
Accordingly, AS will hold 42 seats in the Saeima, LPV 17, SV/AJ 15, NA 10, the Progressives nine and JV seven.
The remaining eight parties that contested the election have fallen below the 5% threshold.
ZZS received 4.41% of the vote, We Are Changing the Rules 3.43%, and Latvia’s Development 2.18%. These parties will be eligible for state funding because they received more than 2% of the vote.
Just below the 2% threshold is Stability! with 1.99% support, followed by Rising Sun for Latvia (ASL) with 1.33%, Gobzems’ List with 0.98%, Harmony Centre with 0.82%, and the New Conservative Party with 0.33%.
All of these parties, with the exception of ASL, had previously received state funding.