Latvian parliamentary election, 2014

Last updated
Latvian parliamentary election, 2014
Flag of Latvia.svg
  2011 4 October 2014 2018  

All 100 seats in the Saeima
51 seats needed for a majority
 First partySecond partyThird party
  Nil Ushakov.jpg Laimdota Straujuma 2014.jpg Flickr - Saeima - 10.Saeimas deputats Raimonds Vejonis.jpg
Leader Nils Ušakovs Laimdota Straujuma Raimonds Vējonis
Party Harmony Unity ZZS
Leader since27 November 2005
Last election28.36%18.83%12.22%
Seats before3120 [lower-alpha 1] 13
Seats won242321
Seat changeDecrease2.svg7Increase2.svg3Increase2.svg8
Popular vote209,887199,535178,210
Percentage23.0%21.9%19.5%

 Fourth partyFifth partySixth party
  Raivis Dzintars.jpg Martins Bondars.jpg Inguna Sudraba foto 2014 05a.jpg
Leader Raivis Dzintars Mārtiņš Bondars Inguna Sudraba
Party National Alliance LRA NSR
Leader since23 July 201113 March 20145 May 2014
Last election13.88%New partyNew party
Seats before1400
Seats won1787
Seat changeIncrease2.svg3Increase2.svg8Increase2.svg7
Popular vote151,56760,81262,521
Percentage16.6%6.7%6.9%

Latvijas 12. Saeimas velesanas karte.png
Strongest political party by municipality

Prime Minister before election

Laimdota Straujuma
Unity

Prime Minister

Laimdota Straujuma
Unity

Parliamentary elections were held in Latvia on 4 October 2014. The previous elections were held in 2011, but according to the country's constitution, [1] the parliamentary term was reduced to only three years following early elections (the 2011 elections took place a year after the 2010 elections).

Latvia republic in Northeastern Europe

Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. Since its independence, Latvia has been referred to as one of the Baltic states. It is bordered by Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, Russia to the east, and Belarus to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Sweden to the west. Latvia has 1,957,200 inhabitants and a territory of 64,589 km2 (24,938 sq mi). The country has a temperate seasonal climate.

Contents

Campaign

On 27 December 2013, the Reform Party announced an electoral pact with its government coalition partner Unity, with most prominent Reform Party candidates running under the Unity campaign. [2] On 16 July 2014 the Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party signed a cooperation pact with the Latvian Association of Regions to run under the LAR campaign. [3]

Reform Party (Latvia) Latvian political party

The Reform Party, until April 2012 known as Zatlers' Reform Party, was a centre-right political party in Latvia founded by former President Valdis Zatlers on 23 July 2011. It won 22 seats in the Saeima in the 2011 election.

Latvian Social Democratic Workers Party political party

The Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Latvia. It has a long history but is not currently represented in the parliament of Latvia.

The main party of the Harmony Centre alliance, the Social Democratic Party "Harmony" contested the elections with a separate list, whilst fellow alliance members the Latvian Socialist Party announced on 20 July 2014 that they would not contest the election. [4]

Harmony Centre political coalition

Harmony Centre was a social-democratic political alliance in Latvia. It originally consisted of five political parties: the National Harmony Party, the Socialist Party of Latvia, New Centre, the Daugavpils City Party, and the Social Democratic Party. Through a series of mergers they were eventually reduced to two: Social Democratic Party "Harmony" and the Socialist Party.

Social Democratic Party "Harmony" political party in Latvia

The Social Democratic Party "Harmony", also commonly referred to as Harmony (Saskaņa), is a social-democratic political party in Latvia. It is the main catch-all party of the centre-left in Latvian politics. The party was founded in 2010 as the merger of the National Harmony Party (TSP) with New Centre (JC) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), a breakaway from the Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party (LSDSP). At that time, all three were members of the former electoral alliance Harmony Centre. The alliance also included the communist Socialist Party of Latvia. The Daugavpils City Party merged into the party in 2011.

Results

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Harmony 209,88723.0024–7
Unity 199,53521.8723–19
Union of Greens and Farmers 178,21019.5321+8
National Alliance 151,56716.6117+3
For Latvia from the Heart 62,5216.857New
Latvian Association of Regions 60,8126.668New
Latvian Russian Union 14,3901.5800
United for Latvia 10,7881.180New
Latvian Development 8,1560.890New
New Conservative Party 6,3890.700New
Freedom. Free from Fear, Hate and Anger1,7350.1900
Growth1,5150.170New
Sovereignty1,0330.110New
Invalid/blank votes6,953
Total913,4911001000
Registered voters/turnout1,552,23558.85
Source: CVK

Aftermath

Following the elections, a centre-right coalition government was formed by Unity, the Union of Greens and Farmers and the National Alliance. However, the government resigned on 7 December 2015.

Second Straujuma cabinet

The Second Straujuma cabinet was the government of Latvia from 5 November 2014 to 11 February 2016. It was the second government to be led by Laimdota Straujuma, who was the Prime Minister from 2014 to 2016. It took office after the October 2014 parliamentary election, succeeding the first Straujuma cabinet, which lasted 8 months.

Notes

  1. Combined total for Unity and the Reform Party, as the Reform Party ran as part of the Unity list.

Related Research Articles

The Socialist Party of Latvia was formed in 1994 as a successor party to the Communist Party of Latvia, which was banned in 1991. In essence, the party is communist; according to the programme of the party, the LSP was founded as an organization upholding socialist ideas after the 1991 events that the party describes as a 'counter-revolutionary bourgeois-nationalist coup'.

The Latvian Green Party is a green political party in Latvia. It was founded on 13 January 1990 and is a member of the European Green Party. Unusually for a green party in Europe, the LZP is generally considered a centre-right party. Leading politicians of the party have often supported reactionary, nationalist, and anti-LGBT positions. The party has only gained representation in the Saeima by forming electoral alliances with other parties.

Latvian Russian Union political party

The Latvian Russian Union (LKS) is an ethnic minority, left-wing political party in Latvia, supported mainly by ethnic Russians and other Russian-speaking minorities. The co-chairpersons of the Latvian Russian Union are Miroslav Mitrofanov, Yuriy Petropavlovsky and Tatjana Ždanoka.

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Latvian Farmers Union political party

The Latvian Farmers' Union is a centrist, agrarian political party in Latvia.

2006 Latvian parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections were held in Latvia on 7 October 2006. The governing coalition, led by Prime Minister Aigars Kalvītis and his People's Party, won the election. Kalvitis's government thus became the first to be re-elected since Latvia had regained independence in 1991.

Communist Party of Latvia

Communist Party of Latvia was a political party in Latvia.

2010 Latvian parliamentary election general election

Parliamentary elections were held in Latvia on 2 October 2010. It was the first parliamentary election to be held in Latvia since the beginning of the economic crisis during which Latvia had experienced one of the deepest recessions in the world.

Responsibility – Social Democratic Alliance of Political Parties is a political coalition in Latvia, until 2010 called Libertas.lv, which was the local branch of Declan Ganley's Libertas Party. Unlike Libertas in other countries, Libertas Latvia was not a political party in its own right. Instead, candidates from Mūsu Zeme, Sociālā Taisnīguma Partija and Latvijas Atmoda contended the 2009 European Parliament elections in Latvia under common lists branded with the Libertas identity. The candidates retained their membership of their national parties and the national parties retained their legal identity.

2018 Latvian parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections were held in Latvia on 6 October 2018.

New Unity is a liberal-conservative political party in Latvia. It is currently the largest party of the centre-right in Latvian politics and was the leading party in the Dombrovskis and Straujuma cabinets from its inception in 2010 until February 2016 and is a member of the current coalition since January 2019 with its member Krišjānis Kariņš as Prime Minister. Unity is a member of the European People's Party (EPP).

National Alliance (Latvia) right-wing political party in Latvia

The National Alliance, officially the National Alliance "All For Latvia!" – "For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK", abbreviated to NA, is a right-wing populist, national-conservative political party in Latvia. With thirteen seats in the Saeima, the National Alliance is the fourth-largest party in the national parliament and the third-largest party in the government. The party is a coalition of conservatives, Latvian ethnonationalists, and economic liberals.

2011 Latvian parliamentary election election

Early parliamentary elections were held in Latvia on 17 September 2011, following the country's first parliamentary dissolution referendum held on 23 July 2011. The previous parliamentary election was only held in October 2010.

United for Latvia is a populist and economically liberal political party in Latvia. It was founded in 2011 in Rēzekne and in 2013 Ainārs Šlesers became party chairman. Šlesers has been dubbed one of the three "oligarchs" prominent in Latvian politics, and United for Latvia marks his return to electoral politics. He was previously leader of Latvia's First Party/Latvian Way and has served in several governments of Latvia including as Deputy Prime Minister in the government of Aigars Kalvītis and Minister of Transport in the second government of Ivars Godmanis, both of whom are party members. Other formerly prominent Latvian politicians who are now party members include Jānis Jurkāns and Jānis Straume. The party is yet to win seats in the Saeima or the European Parliament. Šlesers and several other party members have been in the past among the Latvian politicians most willing to cooperate with Harmony and other Russian parties in Latvia.

Movement For!

Movement For! is a liberal political party in Latvia. The party was founded on 26 August 2017 at the House of Culture Rītausma in Riga with 298 party members. The party is one of the members of the Development/For! alliance.

The Progressives (Latvia) political party in Latvia

The Progressives is a social democratic political party in Latvia. The party was founded on February 25, 2017. Since February 24, 2018, its chairman has been Roberts Putnis. The Progressives currently do not hold any seats in the Saeima or in the European Parliament.

References

  1. Article 13 Archived 2013-12-05 at the Wayback Machine . of the Constitution of Latvia
  2. 'Vienotība' un RP vienojas par kopīgu startu 12.Saeimas vēlēšanās, LETA, 27 December 2013, accessed 21 September 2014
  3. LSDSP un Latvijas Reģionu apvienība kopā startē Saeimas vēlēšanās Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party (in Latvian)
  4. Latvijas Sociālistiskās partijas XVII kongress [ permanent dead link ] Latvijas Sociālistiskās partijas (in Latvian)