European Parliament election, 2004 (Latvia)

Latvia European Parliament election, 2004

12 June 2004

9 seats to the European Parliament

The European Parliament election of 2004 in Latvia was the election of MEP representing Latvia constituency for the 2004-2009 term of the European Parliament. It was part of the wider 2004 European election. The vote took place on June 12.

There were lists of candidates from 16 political parties. with a total of 1019 candidates. The voter turnout was 41.20%, with 574,674 voters casting votes. It was significantly lower than the usual turnout for Latvian parliamentary elections (which has been between 71% and 73% for previous three elections) but higher than the turnout in most of other countries which joined EU together with Latvia in 2004.

The election was conducted according to party-list proportional representation system, with at least 5% of votes necessary to gain seats in the parliament. Out of 16 parties, five won seats in the European parliament. Several parties narrowly missed the 5% threshold.

The preliminary results are:

 Summary of the results of Latvia's 12 June 2004 election to the European Parliament

2004 • 2009 →
National party		European party	Main candidate	Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK (TB/LNNK)	AEN		171,859	29.82	—	4 / 9	—
	New Era Party (JL)	EPP		113,593	19.71	—	2 / 9	—
	For Human Rights in United Latvia (PCTVL)	EFA		61,401	10.66	—	1 / 9	—
	People's Party (TP)	EPP		38,324	6.65	—	1 / 9	—
	Latvian Way (LC)	ALDE		37,724	6.55	—	1 / 9	—
	National Harmony Party (TSP)	PES		27,506	4.77	—	0 / 9	—
	Social Democratic Labour Party (LSDSP)	PES		27,468	4.77	—	0 / 9	—
	Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS) Farmers' Union (LZS) Green Party (LZP)	None None EGP		24,467	4.25	—	0 / 9 0 / 9 0 / 9	— —
	Latvia's First Party (LPP)	EPP–ED		18,685	3.24	—	0 / 9	—
	Conservative Party			9,716	1.69	—	0 / 9	—
	Socialist Party (LSP)			9,480	1.65	—	0 / 9	—
	Light of Latgale			8,439	1.46	—	0 / 9	—
	Others			9,831	1.70	—	0 / 9	—
Valid votes
Valid ballots
Blank and invalid ballots
Totals				571,364	100.00	—	9 / 9	0
Electorate (eligible voters) and voter turnout				1,397,736	40.88	—
Source: Official results

The elections were a major loss for the coalition government in power, as the three coalition parties together won only 14.2% of popular vote. Tautas Partija was the only coalition party to win a seat.

The winning party Tēvzemei un Brīvībai/LNNK had most votes in 22 of 26 counties and 5 of 7 cities. The exception was Southeast Latvia (Daugavpils, Krāslava and Rezekne districts and cities of Daugavpils and Rēzekne) which were won by the Par Cilvēka Tiesībām Vienotā Latvijā party and Ludza district won by Socialist Party of Latvia, due to large percentage of ethnically Russian voters in this area.

See also

• Politics of Latvia