Abu Meri quits party council role after election setback

Latvian Health Minister Hosams Abu Meri will step down as chair of the Unity party council and withdraw from active party politics after failing to win re-election to parliament, LSM reported. He will remain health minister until a new government is formed.

Preliminary results show Abu Meri received 3,369 negative votes and 3,485 positive votes, the most negative votes among New Unity candidates. The balance of votes moved him from second to fifth place on the party’s Vidzeme list, leaving him outside the 15th Saeima.

Abu Meri announced his decision on Facebook, thanking voters and those who had recognised his work as health minister. He said the ministry was a politically difficult field and that, during three years in the role, he had faced pressure from interest groups, resistance from industry organisations and personal attacks. He also said misinformation had circulated and that reforms had caused discontent among some members of the public.

He said New Unity had not worked effectively enough, as the election results showed, and that he accepted part of the responsibility. Abu Meri said he had informed the party’s board of his decision to leave the council chairmanship and that it was time for him to step back from active involvement in the party.

He added that New Unity was assessing the changes it needed to make.