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Reaction to an Amendment in Saeima Election Law

12.05.2011 | Valdis Liepiņš |

The Latvian parliament, the Saeima, is elected through proportional elections with open lists, whereby voters can affect the order of the candidates in their lists by adding a plus to the names of the candidates they favour or deleting the names of those whom they disfavour. Until the 10^th Saeima elections on October 2^nd, 2010 candidates could stand for election in more than one electoral district, there being five such districts in total. Should they qualify for election in more than one district they would enter parliament from the district where they obtained most votes. This meant that candidates elected in one district, usually from one of the two largest (Riga and Vidzeme) vacated places for candidates next in line on their lists in the three smallest districts (Latgale, Zemgale and Kurzeme). The practice had several undesirable effects and allowed party leaders to manipulate to a considerable degree which candidates from their list would get into parliament, i.e. who would fill their vacated places. In 2007 the Electoral Reform Society (of Latvia) – “Vēlēšanu reformas biedrība”, hereinafter VEL – proposed an amendment to stop this practice and allow candidates to stand for election in only one electoral district. The amendment, submitted by the New Era party (“Jaunais laiks” or “JL”) and demanded by Latvia’s President Valdis Zatlers, was passed into law on February 26, 2009 by the Saeima with 68 votes in favour, 11 against, 11 abstentions and 10 deputies not voting. Thus, at the 10^th Saeima elections candidates, who themselves did not receive sufficient voter support to get elected, could no longer be shunted into places vacated by their party “locomotives” to be their surrogates. This report, prepared by the Electoral Reform Society (of Latvia) reviews the reaction to the amendment by political parties, members of the VEL advisory council and voters, and its possible impact on the election results.

The reaction of voters was gleaned from a survey, commissioned by VEL with SKDS, a Latvian polling organization, from October 9 to 21, 2010 with a random sample of 847 personal interviews with Latvian citizens, of whom 653 had participated in the 10^th Saeima elections.