LATVIA: Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis secures historic win

Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis and his centre-right coalition have secured enough seats to become Latvia's first government to win consecutive terms of office, after electoral authorities Sunday (October 8) declared the final results. The result leaves the government free to pursue its pro European Union and economic expansionist policies. Latvia joined the European Union in 2004 and the government has pledged to adopt the euro. In the first half of 2006 its economy grew 12 percent. The final tally showed Kalvitis's People's Party, with its partners the Greens, the Farmers Union and Latvia's First Party, had won just short of 45 percent of the vote, Latvia's Electoral Commission said. The coalition now has enough support to secure 51 seats in Latvia's 100 seat parliament, the commission said in a statement. This compares with the previous election in 2002, when the government won 55 seats. Analysts had predicted Saturday's result, saying voters would opt for continued prosperity and ignore issues such as concern about corruption, the widening gap between rich and poor and the problems of a large ethnic Russian population. The election commission said the final voter turnout was 61.38 percent. Latvia's President Vaira Vike-Freiberga told a press conference earlier she was confident a prime minister and cabinet would be nominated and confirmed by parliament quickly, unlike the last election when the process took more than six weeks to complete. "There is indication that it will be so just judging from the public pronouncements that we have heard from the various parties' leaders. They all have expressed readiness to work together," she said. Political analysts said it was all but certain that Kalvitis, who has vowed to continue the free-market, low tax policies which have helped the former Soviet state become one of the EU's fastest-growing economies, would retain his job. In the coming week the governing parties are expected to consider expanding the coalition to give it a larger working majority in parliament. A senior People's Party official said the government would on Monday discuss the election win and whether to bring another party into the ruling coalition. Analysts said there was a strong possibility that opposition centre-right party New Era, which won 16.38 percent of the vote, would rejoin the government. New Era led the coalition that won the 2002 election but left the government this year due to a policy disagreement. New Era member and former Economics Minister Krisjanis Karins told Reuters before the election that his party was ready to rejoin the government.

ITN Source | October 9, 2006

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