Saturday, the 13th of May, marked the conclusion of the period of time during which parties were able to propose presidential candidates. No new candidates were submitted, which means there are three candidates in total.
The Combined List (AS) decided to propose its founder, businessman Uldis Pīlēns, Progressive Party selected public management expert Elīna Pinto, and New Unity selected Latvia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Edgars Rinkēvičs as theirs.
The National Alliance, Union of Greens and Farmers, Latvia in First Place and For Stability have not proposed their own presidential candidates.
None of the candidates enjoy a confident advantage in potential votes.
There are public speculations that Pīlēns may be elected using votes from the Combined List and opposition parties. The Union of Greens and Farmers and non-party Saeima deputy Glorija Grevcova may vote for him as well.
The Union of Greens and Farmers have yet to announce clear support for any of the candidates.
Rinkēvičs and Pinto are currently supported by only their respective parties – New Unity and Progressive Party. Experts have so far been sceptical about Pinto’s chances. As for Rinkēvičs, however, he is likely to receive support from the National Alliance and Progressive Party if Pinto drops out in the first round. The National Alliance has yet to decide which candidate they will vote for. Even if he receives support from the three coalition parties, Rinkēvičs will still have to look for support elsewhere.
LTV programme De Facto estimates the coalition may undergo changes after presidential elections.
According to the programme, in the political backstage there are talks about the Union of Greens and Farmers potentially coming close to the coalition if they support New Unity’s candidate.
Although the biggest obstacle for cooperation with the Union of Greens and Farmers is their prime minister candidate, Ventspils City Council deputy, its former mayor Aivars Lembergs, who is not only under international sanctions but has also been found guilty of various crimes by a court of first instance, New Unity and the Union of Greens and Farmers have worked together in the past rather often.
Officially the Union of Greens and Farmers claim all three candidates have equal chances of becoming president. “We will work to ensure support from 16 deputies for candidates. I believe it is clear to everyone the Union of Greens and Farmers can prove decisive in this process, and our 16 votes, not one or two, are important in this process. We will go into this cycle of elections as a team,” the party’s Saeima faction leader Viktors Valainis promises.
For Stability political party’s leader Aleksejs Rosļikovs has announced that his faction’s votes could go against all candidates if none of them promise to lift legislative requirement for Russian citizens to pass a Latvian language exam to receive a permanent residence permit.
According to him, his party understands their entry of the government is unrealistic. This is why there is no other way for presidential candidates to receive their votes.
Presidential elections will be held in the Saeima on the last day of May.
Also read: Politologist predicts minister Edgars Rinkēvičs has a good chance of becoming president