Opposition voters backed candidates most strongly, while coalition voters marked most against

Voters for opposition parties added the most positive marks to candidates in Latvia’s 15th Saeima election, while supporters of governing coalition parties used negative marks most often, LSM reported, citing calculations by the LETA news agency.

Voters for Sovereign Power/Association of Young Latvians, Latvia First and the Progressives were most likely to mark candidates “for”. At least 10% of their parties’ voters gave positive marks to 44 candidates from Sovereign Power/Association of Young Latvians and 20 each from Latvia First and the Progressives.

Voters for New Unity and the National Alliance marked candidates “against” most often. At least 10% of voters marked 10 candidates from each of those parties and nine from the United List. Among Progressives voters, at least 10% marked two candidates against. Voters for other parties that entered the Saeima were more restrained in marking against their candidates.

The 15th Saeima ballots introduced “for” and “against” boxes beside candidates’ names. Previously, voters showed support by adding a plus sign and opposition by crossing out a candidate. The results resemble the previous election, when voters for parties that were new to parliament or had not served in government were most likely to express support for candidates. Voters for parties in the governing coalition were most likely to express opposition.

Among individual candidates, Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs of the United List received the most positive marks from his party’s voters: 19,428, equal to 70.2% of the votes cast for the party’s Riga list, on which he ran.