HELSINKI

Latvian elections will test the loyalty of ethnic Russian voters

Associated Press

Jari Tanner

Publication date:

01/10/2022 • 14 minutes ago • 3 minutes to read • Join the conversation

FILE - Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins speaks to the media as he arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, June 23, 2022. Latvians will vote on Saturday, Oct. 1, in parliamentary elections that have been significantly affected by neighboring Russia's invasion of Ukraine, political disunity among the Baltic country's large ethnic Russian minority, and economic problems , including high energy costs. Opinion polls show that Karins' New Unity, which leads the current four-party center-right minority coalition, is likely to win the most votes, according to a forecast of 1.5 million eligible voters, with between 13 and 20 percent of the vote. . .
FILE – Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins speaks to the media as he arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, June 23, 2022. Latvians will vote on Saturday, Oct. 1, in parliamentary elections that have been significantly affected by neighboring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, political disunity among the Baltic country’s large ethnic Russian minority, and economic problems , including high energy costs. Opinion polls show that Karins’ New Unity, which leads the current four-party center-right minority coalition, is likely to win the most votes, according to a forecast of 1.5 million eligible voters, with between 13 and 20 percent of the vote. . . Photo: Olivier Matthys /ASSOCIATED PRESS

HELSINKI (AP) – Neighboring Russia’s attack on Ukraine helped shape parliamentary elections in Latvia on Saturday, where divisions among the Baltic nation’s large ethnic Russian minority are likely to affect the makeup of parliament and war-related energy concerns will preoccupy the next government. .

Several polls showed that Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins’ center-right Uusi Yhtes party has won the most votes with up to 20 percent.

Karins, who became the head of Latvia’s government in January 2019, currently leads a minority coalition of four parties, which includes, along with New Unity, the center-right National Alliance, the centrist Development/For! and conservatives.

A total of 19 parties have more than 1,800 candidates in the election, but only about eight parties are expected to cross the 5 percent threshold required for the seat’s 100-seat parliament.

Born in Wilmington, Delaware, 57-year-old Karins, a dual citizen of Latvia and the United States, told Latvian media that it would be easiest to continue with the same coalition government if New Unity wins. He has ruled out any cooperation with pro-Kremlin parties.

Support for parties serving the ethnic Russian minority, which makes up more than 25 percent of Latvia’s 1.9 million population, is expected to be mixed; some loyal voters have abandoned them—for various reasons—after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

The election is likely to be the day of death for the opposition Harmony party, whose popularity has steadily declined.

The Moscow-friendly party has traditionally served as an umbrella for the majority of Latvian Russian-speaking voters, including Belarusians and Ukrainians. In the 2018 election, Harmony received nearly 20 percent of the vote, the most of any single party, but was prevented from entering government by other parties.

However, Harmony’s immediate and strong opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused many voters who still support Russian President Vladimir Putin to reject it. Opponents of the war, on the other hand, have tended to side with Latvia’s mainstream parties, all of which have also taken a stand against the invasion.

A recent opinion poll conducted by the Latvian broadcasting company LSM showed that Harmony remained in fifth place with 5.1 percent support.

“I think the Russian part of the population is very fragmented,” Pauls Raudseps, a columnist for the Latvian news paper IR, told the Associated Press. “You can’t say it’s unified anywhere. Some are pro-Putin. But we’ve seen that the war in general has changed attitudes. And it’s happened quite quickly.”

On Saturday, long queues were reported outside polling stations in several places in the country, including in the capital, Riga. Many said Russia’s aggression in Ukraine influenced voter attitudes.

“I think people are starting to get active, and as you can see, there’s already a queue. So hopefully some pro-Russians have now switched to more European parties… We can’t really say that the war is a positive thing,” IT engineer Ratios Shovels, 38, said at a polling station in the Riga district.

Elena Dadukina, a 43-year-old lawyer, said she was not sure whether the good turnout was “due to the war or whether people want more responsibility in choosing candidates because they influence our domestic politics.”

Since the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine in February, Latvian authorities have banned Russians from entering the country with tourist visas and demolished a prominent Soviet monument in Riga.

This week, the government declared a state of emergency in certain Latvian border areas as a precautionary measure following Russia’s partial military mobilization. Like neighboring Baltic countries Estonia and Lithuania, Latvia refuses to grant political asylum to Russian military reservists fleeing conscription.

Latvia, which joined the EU and NATO in 2004, also plans to reduce conscription next year after a break of more than 15 years.

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AP video editor Eduard Kolik participated from Riga, Latvia

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Follow AP news about the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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