Next Latvian parliamentary election

Next Latvian parliamentary election

Not later than October 2018

All 100 seats to the Saeima 51 seats are needed for a majority in the Saeima   Leader Nils Ušakovs Andris Piebalgs Māris Kučinskis Party Harmony Unity Union of Greens and Farmers Leader since 27 November 2005 4 June 2016 2014 Leader's seat Did not participate Did not participate Riga Last election 24 seats, 23.00% 23 seats, 21.87% 21 seats, 19.74% Current seats 24 23 21 Seats needed 27 28 30   Leader Raivis Dzintars Mārtiņš Bondars Inguna Sudraba Party National Alliance Latvian Association of Regions For Latvia from the Heart Leader since 23 July 2011 13 March 2014 5 May 2014 Leader's seat Vidzeme Vidzeme Riga Last election 17 seats, 16.61% 8 seats, 6.66% 7 seats, 6.85% Current seats 17 7 7 Seats needed 34 44 44

Incumbent Prime Minister Māris Kučinskis Union of Greens and Farmers

The next Latvian parliamentary elections will be called following the dissolution or expiry of the current Saeima, and must not be held later than October 2018.

Background

The 2014 elections saw Social Democratic Party "Harmony" emerge as the largest party. Although the largest party, Harmony has not participated in the government. A coalition was formed by Unity, the Union of Greens and Farmers and the National Alliance with Laimdota Straujuma as Prime Minister.^[1] On 7 December 2015 she resigned after increasing tensions within the ruling coalition.^[2][3][4] Following her resignation and several scandals around the Unity leader Solvita Āboltiņa, opinion polls showed a rapid decrease of support for Unity. On 13 January 2016 Māris Kučinskis of the Union of Greens and Farmers was nominated to be the next Prime Minister by President Raimonds Vējonis.^[5] His government was approved by the Saeima on 11 February.

Electoral system

The 100 members of the Saeima are elected by open list proportional representation from five multi-member constituencies (Kurzeme, Latgale, Riga (in which overseas votes are counted), Vidzeme and Zemgale) between 13 and 32 seats in size. Seats are allocated using the Sainte-Laguë method with a national electoral threshold of 5%.^[6]

Opinion polls

Graphical Summary

Poll date	SDPS	V	ZZS	NA	LRA	NSL	LKS	VL	LA	JKP	GKL	KPV	Won't vote	Don't know	Other
July 2016	17.8	6.3	17.5	9.1	2.1	1.9						5.9	16.8	19.6	3.0
June 2016	19.2	5.4	17.1	7.8	2.3	3.1						8.4	11.3	22.7	2.7
May 2016	19.1	4.1	19.9	6.2	2.4	1.4	1.3	0.7	0.4	0.2	0.3	6.1	12.4	25.6	0.0
April 2016	16.7	3.7	20.0	8.1	4.0	2.2	0.7	0.7	1.0	0.9	0.1		11.9	29.8	0.0
March 2016	17.9	5.5	20.2	9.0	4.6	2.3	0.7	0.6	1.3	0.6	0.4		14.7	22.4	0.0
February 2016	18.5	5.4	18.1	8.3	3.9	2.8	1.3	0.5	0.1	0.6			17.5	22.1	1.0
February 2016	20.1	5.9	21.2	8.7	4.6	2.2	0.7	0.4	1.0	0.5			11.9	23.9	0.0
January 2016	18.7	5.3	16.8	8.1	4.7	1.6	0.4	0.3	0.7	0.2			12.6	30.7	0.0
December 2015	19.5	5.5	15.6	8.7	5.0	1.9	0.4	0.5	0.3	0.3			11.5	31.0	0.0
November 2015	18.1	8.1	14.9	8.2	5.6	3.6	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.6			12.6	26.8	0.0
October 2015	20.5	7.2	15.1	7.9	4.4	2.0	0.3	0.7	0.3	0.1			13.0	28.4	0.0
August 2015	21.7	8.0	13.6	10.0	4.4	2.8							12.7	25.1	1.7
April 2015	20.5	10.3	13.3	9.0	4.8	3.9	1.0		0.2				11.5	24.5	1.0
February 2015	18.4	9.8	12.7	7.7	3.6	3.4							15.3	26.5	2.6
2014 election	23.0	21.9	19.7	16.6	6.7	6.9	1.6	1.2	0.9	0.7	-	-	-	-	0.4

References

1. "President nominates Straujuma to carry on". www.lsm.lv. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
2. Kaža, Juris. "Latvia's Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma Steps Down". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
3. "Government falls as Straujuma resigns". www.lsm.lv. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
4. Sputnik. "Latvian Prime Minister Straujuma Resigns". sputniknews.com. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
5. "President nominates Māris Kučinskis as Prime Minister". www.lsm.lv. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
6. Electoral system IPU