site.btaMore than One in Three Latvians Don't Care about European Elections

More than one third of Latvians do not care about the European elections, according to opinion polls in the Baltic republic three days before Saturday's voting for a new European Parliament.

In a poll conducted by the SKDS agency and commissioned by Latvian national television LTV, 17.2% of respondents said they would definitely not vote. 19.2% of Latvians are still undecided whether to vote at all. That brings the proportion of those who may not cast their ballots in the June 8 election to 36.4%.

Thursday is the second out of three days for early voting in Latvia. There are 945 polling sections in the country, and voters can cast their ballots everywhere between 4 pm and 8 pm local time on Thursday, and from 1 pm to 6 pm on Friday.

On the first day for early voting, June 3, a total of 13,127 people or 0.85% of the population exercised their voting right. The most active voters were those in the capital, 4,514. The ballot papers will not opened until the polling station close on June 8, when the counting will begin.

Sociologists expect former prime minister Krisjanis Karins to be the most crossed out name on the ballots at these European elections. Latvians can only vote via paper ballots, and have to tick the box next to their most preferred candidate in each list. The name of the candidate they do not wish to see in the new European Parliament has to be crossed out completely in the ballot paper.

According to TV24 editor Lelde Veinberga, a large number of people are against Karins. "My mother, for example, supports New Unity [Karins' party] but has decided to cross out his name," Veinberga told BTA.

According to the latest opinion polls, the most popular party is the right-wing nationalist conservative coalition National Alliance: "All for Latvia!" - For Fatherland and Freedom, led by Roberts Zile. This coalition's share of popularity is around 11%. Next is New Unity with an average of 8% of voters in the various opinion polls over the election campaign. Latvia will have 9 MEPs in the new European Parliament, by one more than before, with sociologists expecting National Alliance to win three MEP seats and New Unity, one.

The minimum age for voting in Latvia is 18 years and for running in the elections, 21. Citizens are not obliged to exercise their right to vote. To enter the European Parliament, parties need to win at least 5% of the votes. The MEP candidates have to be citizens of an EU Member State with a residency status in Latvia.

Latvia's current MEPs are three representatives of Unity (now part of New Unity) and one representative each of Social Democratic Party "Harmony", Honor to Serve Riga, Development/For!, National Alliance, and Latvian Russian Union.