New Unity party, which forms the backbone of Latvia’s government, is gaining majority of the vote in the elections to the European Parliament held on Saturday. This political force has secured support of 26.2% of voters, the local LETA news agency reported.
With more than 90% of ballot papers counted, the Social Democratic Party Harmony, which represents the interests of Russian-speaking citizens, has been backed by 18% of voters. The party’s leader, suspended Riga Mayor Nils Usakovs, was number one in the party’s lists at the elections.
The All For Latvia! Nationalist far-right political party came in third garnering 16.4% of the vote.
The current results indicate that several candidates can be elected to the European Parliament from Latvia, including European Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis from the New Unity party, Usakovs from the Social Democratic Party Harmony, member of the European Parliament Roberts Zile, political scientist Ivars Ijabs from the Development/For! Political alliance and leader of the Latvian Russian Union and former member of the European Parliament Tatjana Zdanoka.
The elections to the European Parliament are held between May 23-26 in all EU member-states. Eight deputies from Latvia will be elected to the European Parliament. A total of 16 Latvian political parties and groups with 246 candidates were registered at the elections. The voter turnout in Latvia reached 33.51%. The preliminary official results will be announced overnight to May 27 when the vote wraps up in all EU member-states.