Extraordinary elections bring power change in Latvia’s capital

The Latvian capital Riga will be governed by a coalition of several parties built around a liberal-left alliance that gained just over 26 percent of the vote in the August 29 extraordinary elections to the 60-member city council.

The election, with a record low participation of 40.6 percent of eligible voters in the city. formally ended more than 10 years of scandal-ridden rule by the allegedly pro-Russian, self-declared social democratic Harmony (S) party and its allies, who were dismissed when the city council was dissolved earlier this year.

Political analysts say the new mayor of Riga, to be elected by the council, will be Mārtiņš Staķis from the alliance of the liberal For Development/For (A/Par) and the social democratic Progressives (Pro) that gained the most votes. Staķis is expected to be supported by several other parties that passed the 5 percent threshold for getting seated in the municipal council. He resigned a seat in the Latvian parliament or Saeima, where he represented A/Par to run in the Riga election

Mārtinš Staķis, likely to be Riga's new mayor (elected by the new city council) addressed his follower from the For Development/For and Progressives electoral alliance soon after exit polls showed his list leading in the vote. (Photo: Juris Kaža)

S came in second with 16.9 percent of the vote, followed by New Unity (JV), the centrist party of Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš with 15.2 percent and a joint electoral list of the nationalist National Alliance (NA) and the Latvian Regional Alliance (LRA) with 9.6…