Outcomes of Latvia Local Elections 2021: Record Low Voter Turnout

ISSN: 2560-1601

Vol. 41, No. 1 (LVA)

June 2021

Latvia political briefing: Outcomes of Latvia local elections 2021: record low voter turnout, new electoral districts and digital solutions Institute of Economics of the Latvian Academy of Sciences

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Kiadásért felelős személy: Huang Ping china-cee.eu 2017/01

Outcomes of Latvia local elections 2021: record low voter turnout, new electoral districts and digital solutions

Summary

On June 5, 2021 local elections took place in Latvia in 40 new municipalities. Mainly regional and national political parties who were in power before, were able to save their status quo, however some new local parties were elected through alliances with big actors. The most dramatic outcome of these elections is voter turnout, which is extremely low – only 34,01% of eligible voters took part in elections, making it the lowest percentage since restoration of independence of Latvia.

The new solution aimed at increasing number of eligible voters, is digitalization of voting registration process in Latvia. It is planned that an electronic voter register will allow voters to vote at any polling station in their municipality using their electronic identity card alongside passport as personal identification document, as many citizens recently choose to have only eID card. However, it didn’t help to increase number of voters who took part in elections.

Introduction

The beginning of June has been stressful for Latvian municipalities as they have been preparing for local (municipal) elections taking place on Saturday, June 5, 2021. Those citizens who are in a group of higher risk to Covid-19 and also those who are not vaccinated yet were invited to vote on pre-voting days to avoid big crowds.

It was reviewed already in Latvia’s political briefing of April that these elections will be held under new conditions, mainly affected by outcomes of administrative territorial reform and Covid-19 pandemic situation. As reported before, in the result of the local elections 43 new constituency were formed, and new councils will start their work on July 1. And although the elections were originally planned to be held in all local governments, except Riga, where the council was elected last year, the elections took place only in 40 local governments, because according to the Constitutional Court judgment, elections in Varakļāni and Rēzekne municipalities will be held in autumn – September 11, 2021.1

1 https://www.cvk.lv/en/elections/local-elections/local-elections-2021

The spread of Covid-19 is another challenge for both polling stations and voters, as various special measures are imposed to prevent the infection of citizens by Covid-19 at polling stations during voting process. Despite those difficulties, the Latvian Association of Local Governments invited every eligible citizen to participate in the local elections2.

Main reasons for low voter turnout

Early forecasts of voter turnout were already showing that it will most likely not be higher than in previous elections, adding that voter turnout of around 50% "would already be satisfying". However, in reality numbers turned out to be much more upsetting. Only 34,01% of those entitled to vote have voted these elections3, which is the lowest figure in any national election since the restoration of independence more than 30 years ago. There is a concern, that these municipal elections will go down in history as those with the lowest turnout so far.4 Table 1. below shows, how changed percentage numbers of voter turnout since 1994 till 2021. The highest turnout was in 2001 (61%), while in last local elections in 2017 it was 50%. According to chairwoman of Central Election Committee Kristīna Bērziņa, the “decline in voter turnout is alarming”.

Table 1. Voter turnout at local elections in Latvia 1994-2021

2 https://www.delfi.lv/pasvaldibu-velesanas-2021/zinas/pasvaldibu-savienibas-vaditajs-mudina-iedzivotajus- piedalities-velesanas.d?id=53250065 3 https://pv2021.cvk.lv/pub/velesanu-rezultati 4 https://eng.lsm.lv/article/politics/politics/record-low-turnout-at-local-elections-in-latvia.a407712/

Experts and media5 called several reasons of such record low turnout numbers: good weather (when citizens left their cities and towns to go to the nature); apathy and indifference of local inhabitants living on the outskirts of new regions and general skepticism on possibility to influence elections outcomes, as well as Covid-19 pandemic and caution to catch the virus inside the polling stations. The main problem is low trust of citizens in political system. According to a Commission study, the proportion of voters who "do not see the point" of voting or "not interested in politics" is increasing.

Several political scientists also expressed their opinions regarding recent elections. They noted that those who went to vote, were not voting for ideologies or political parties, but more based on economic reason, focusing on personalities – leaders who are capable to create a team to manage the municipality.6 At the same time, political scientists stressed out that there should be not much speculation about to the reasons for the low turnout, but what is important now, is to conduct a research to be able to identify steps how to increase civic participation and voter turnout.

Overview of election results

Since there are fewer regions and hence electoral districts and mayor seats, the competition was tougher than before. It was important for political parties who were ruling previous regions, to maintain their power. So, who will rule new municipalities in Latvia?

The best results were shown by parties with traditionally strong regional presence. According to elections results published by the Central Elections Commission (CEC), out of 40 districts, “Greens and Farmers Union”, who is currently in opposition in government, won 12.5% of the seats and topped the poll results in five places: South Kurzeme district, Ludza, Aluksne, Jurmala city and Jelgava city. According to Public broadcasting of Latvia, “Greens and Farmers Union” as a union or one of political parties which comprise the alliance, may get to control as many as 15 of the new municipalities.

Another regional party “Latvian Regional Alliance” was a candidate in 31 districts and also won outright in five places: Tukums, Marupe, Adazi, Saulkrasti and Limbazi. Three parties within the current four-party government coalition did reasonably well. “Latvia's

5 Laikraksts “Diena”, Pašvaldību vēlēšanu rezultātu ietekmē neatnākušie (7.jūnijs 2021) 6 https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/latvija/politologs-radisies-jautajums-vai-pasvaldibu-domes-parstav-visus- iedzivotajus.a407931/

Development” won in four municipalities, “New Unity” in three, and the “National Alliance” in three. Opposition party “Harmony” topped the poll in two districts.

In all other districts, single local parties or one-off joint lists in which other parties pooled their forces came out on top, creating a sometimes-confusing picture and laying the ground for future intrigues. For example, one municipality saw an unexpected joint combination of the “National Alliance”, “Latvian Farmers Union” and “Latvian Green party” topping the poll. Another strange combination was a joint “National Alliance”, “Latvian Regional Alliances”, “Latvian Green Party” list, consisting of parties with completely different political ideologies never cooperating before.

To sum up, those parties which already had experience in leading the municipality were mainly able to preserve their seats, as voters voted for stability through familiar parties who already proved they can rule the city. However, small parties joining more powerful parties in an alliance will make political representation more diverse for next four years.

Online electronic voter register introduced in Latvia

Predicting low voter turnout, one of the attempts to increase number of eligible voters was creation of an online electronic voter register to allow people with eID card to vote too. In Latvia there are two kind of personal identification documents: a passport and electronic identity (eID) card, which can be used to confirm citizen’s identity and legal status in elections. The standard practice for elections in Latvia is that the participation in elections was marked by stamp in the passport, so the presence of valid passport was required. However, in the parliament elections two years ago there were more than 62 thousand voters, for whom the only identity document was an eID card. In addition, since 2023 the eID card will be a mandatory identity document for everyone, while passports will be optional documents or travel documents to countries which do not recognize Latvia’s eID. To make those voters to be able to vote and to use their identity card as eligible document in elections, electronic voter register was introduced in the local elections.7

New digital solution was developed by the Central Election Commission in cooperation with the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs and was used for the first time in these local elections. The idea of digital tool is to make registration process of voters faster and more

7 https://lvportals.lv/dienaskartiba/328399-saeima-konceptuali-atbalsta-elektroniska-tiessaistes-veletaju- registra-ieviesanu-saeimas-velesanas-2021

4 effective – when the voter presents an identity document, the polling station employee will read the barcode on the document with the smartphone, which will be used as a scanner at the moment, thus making sure that the voter is eligible to vote – has reached 18 years and is allowed to vote in that particular electoral district. Perks of new system also are that new tool will save time for polling station employees, and citizens will not be able to vote twice in different polling stations.

During local elections, the electronic system proved to work successful, and is considered to be a solution which could also be used in the next Parliament elections, which will take place in 2022.

Conclusions

Although the Covid-19 pandemic has brought significant changes to everyone's daily lives, we must not forget the citizen's duty to vote. The June local elections were especially essential for the further growth of local governments and the state, as the number of local governments and their territorial boundaries due to elections have change significantly as a result of the Administrative-Territorial Reform.

However, local elections taking place across most of Latvia, failed to stimulate large numbers of people to cast their ballots. Record low voter turnout in local elections stimulated concern that in case if Parliament elections next year will experience the same low turnout, it will seriously damage the reputation of the Parliament and the decisions it has taken. Already now there are discussions about how legitimate are newly elected councils, if not even half of those entitled to vote have expressed their opinion.

The outcomes of these elections remind of urgent actions government must take to develop measures how to increase voter turnout and citizens interest in politics.

References:

[1] https://www.cvk.lv/en/elections/local-elections/local-elections-2021

[2] https://www.delfi.lv/pasvaldibu-velesanas-2021/zinas/pasvaldibu-savienibas-vaditajs- mudina-iedzivotajus-piedalities-velesanas.d?id=53250065

[3] https://pv2021.cvk.lv/pub/velesanu-rezultati

[4] https://eng.lsm.lv/article/politics/politics/record-low-turnout-at-local-elections-in- latvia.a407712/

[5] Laikraksts “Diena”, Pašvaldību vēlēšanu rezultātu ietekmē neatnākušie (7.jūnijs 2021)

[6] https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/latvija/politologs-radisies-jautajums-vai-pasvaldibu-domes- parstav-visus-iedzivotajus.a407931/

[7] https://lvportals.lv/dienaskartiba/328399-saeima-konceptuali-atbalsta-elektroniska- tiessaistes-veletaju-registra-ieviesanu-saeimas-velesanas-2021