Harmony party leader calls on Latvian president to form cabinet

Leader of the Social Democratic Party Harmony, which is winning the parliamentary polls, has called on the Latvian president to allow its candidate Vyacheslav Dombrovsky to form a new cabinet of ministers.

"The Latvian president cannot but allow Vyacheslav Dombrovsky to set up a new cabinet of ministers," Nils Usakovs wrote on his Facebook page, voicing confidence that the ruling coalition is impossible without the Harmony party.

"Given that the new Saeima is split, the creation of an efficient coalition without Harmony’s votes and our voters is impossible in general," Usakovs said. "The government consisting of five or six parties with absolutely different values cannot operate normally, in fact, and cannot bring any changes to the country. In its turn, a socially responsible approach and the ideas of accord between Latvian citizens and non-citizens should become a stabilizing basis for any government," he noted.

According to the Central Election Commission’s data from 1,057 out of 1,078 polling stations, the Harmony party, which advocates the interests of Latvia’s Russian-speaking citizens, is winning 19.91% of the vote. The Who owns the state? Party and the New Conservative Party secured support of 14.06% and 13.60%, respectively.

Other parties, which win seats in the parliament, are the Development/For! Party (12.04%), the National Independence Movement (11.03%) and the Union of Greens and Farmers (9.96%), which now leads Latvia’s ruling coalition, and the New Unity party (6.67%). The Who owns the state? Party, the New Conservative Party and the Development/For! Party are not represented in the parliament now.

Latvia held parliamentary polls on Sunday. A total of 16 political parties and groups, represented by 1,461 candidates, fought for 100 seats in the parliament. Some 954 polling stations were opened in the republic, and another 121 were opened in 45 countries. Latvia is home to 1.9 mln people, and nearly 1.5 mln of citizens are eligible to vote. The voter turnout reached more than 54%.

According to Latvia’s legislation, after the election to the parliament, the Saeima, the president officially nominates a candidate for the premier, who should present a new ruling coalition. Then the parliament will approve the new cabinet of ministers.

Political forces, which won seats in the parliament, have two weeks for talks on possible cooperation and forming a new ruling coalition, and then President Raimonds Vejonis will start consultations on choosing the candidate for the country’s prime minister, the LETA news agency reported citing the president’s Chancellery.