Latvia goes to the polls as voters still undecided on next leaders

RIGA: Polling stations in Latvia opened for a general election that could propel a populist, pro-Kremlin coalition to power as the Baltic state celebrates the centenary of its birth as an independent state.

Though lauded for righting the economy, opinion polls suggest that the governing centre-right coalition has lost ground.

But with a quarter of voters still undecided according to pollsters, the election is still wide open.

Latvia is a member of both the eurozone and Nato, having joined the military alliance in 2004.

But Latvia’s ethnic Russian minority makes up about a quarter of the country’s 1.9 million population.

And Harmony, which was formerly allied with Putin’s United Russia party, is popular with them.

The party has won the largest number of votes in the last three elections and the only reason it did not enter government is it failed to attract coalition partners.

But this time around that could change. Along with fellow Baltic states Estonia and Lithuania, Latvia declared independence in 1918 after the Tsarist Russian empire collapsed.

But it was subsequently occupied by Nazi Germany and after them by the Soviet Union for nearly half a century until 1991.

After the last election in 2014, the centre-right Greens and Farmers Union, the right-wing National Alliance and the centre-right Unity formed a three-party coalition to run the country.

Under their watch the economy, hit hard by the 2008 financial crisis, has resumed growth.

But the polls suggest that voters are abandoning the ruling coalition.

“Voters are tired of hard work, which was necessary to pull Latvia out of the economic crisis,” political scientist Filips Rajevskis said.

“Now ... voters want new faces: the current ministers cannot offer anything entertaining.

“That’s where the populism kicks in,” he said.

While the old parties were trying to introduce some new faces, that tactic did not appear to be working, said Rajevskis.

“Therefore there’s the possibility of a Russia-oriented coalition after the election.”

Polls suggest the Greens and Farmers Union, which currently holds the posts of both president and prime minister, will win no more than 15 seats in the 100-seat parliament.

The National Alliance meanwhile, is expected to win 13.