Pro-Russia party comes out on top in Latvia election

A pro-Russia party has won the most votes in Latvia's parliamentary election.

Dissatisfied Latvians rejected the right-of-centre ruling coalition in Saturday’s vote, but suspicion of the left-leaning pro-Russia Harmony party makes it likely the next government will be another formation of right-wing ethnic Latvian parties.

European Union and Nato member Latvia is seen as a bulwark against Russia amid an increasingly hostile relationship between the West and its president, Vladimir Putin.

Latvians, fed up with corruption and weak democracy in the Baltic country of 2 million, used the election to punish the ruling three-party coalition, which lost almost half of its votes, mostly to two newcomers.

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Those two parties, the populist KPV LV and anti-corruption New Conservatives, won a combined 27.7 per cent of the vote to become the second- and third-biggest parties.

"Our voters want a change from the old post-Soviet politics which has been very powerful up to now," said Janis Bordans, leader of the New Conservatives. "They want to have a stable Latvia, but one which doesn't stagnate."

The New Conservatives, whose leadership features several former officers from the country’s anti-corruption agency, want to beef up law enforcement and get rid of a number of current officials who they say are corrupt.

Mr Bordans said he would like to be the new prime minister.

“If we count out Harmony then it’s logical that we take responsibility. We have to be ready to do it and it is very realistic,” he said.

Harmony, which is supported by ethnic Russians, who make up one-quarter of the population, took 19.9 per cent of the vote but will find it almost impossible to be part of any government.

Ethnic divide

The ethnic divide is strong in Latvian politics and other parties have always shut Harmony out of government. It has tried to rebrand itself as a western-style social democratic party, but only severed official ties to Mr Putin’s United Russia party last year.

"I don't think this is a norm-breaking election. It carries on the tradition we have seen in Latvia that a quarter of the seats go to the Russian-speaking party," said Daunis Auers, professor of comparative politics at the University of Latvia, adding that other parties would have no problem shutting out Harmony.

“They have no reason to form a government with Harmony. They can form a coalition among themselves,” he told Reuters.

Before the election, some Latvians were concerned that a strong result for Harmony and the populist KPV could lead to the two parties forming a government that brought Latvia closer to Russia.

The result will lead to a more fragmented parliament of seven parties, of which six won between 10 and 20 per cent support each. The forming of a government coalition could take months.

Latvia has long been plagued by corruption and moneylaundering. The country's central bank governor is awaiting trial on charges of accepting a bribe, and one of the biggest banks, ABLV, went into liquidation this year after US authorities accused it of laundering vast amounts of money for people from the former Soviet Union.

Harmony will get 24 seats and remain the biggest bloc in parliament. – Reuters