Leftist Harmony wins most votes in Latvia parliamentary election

RIGA -- Latvia's leftist party Harmony has won most votes in the country's Saturday parliamentary election, showed preliminary results released by Latvia's Central Election Commission (CEC) on Sunday.

With 1,000 of the 1,054 polling stations reporting, Harmony won 23.26 percent of the votes, followed by the center-right Unity party led by Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma with 21.62 percent, and the centrist Greens and Farmers Union (ZZS) with 19.74 percent.

The nationalist conservative National Alliance won 16.5 percent of the votes, while For Latvia from the Heart, a new party founded by Latvia's former auditor general Inguna Sudraba, received 6.91 percent, and the Latvian Bloc of Regions captured 6.47 percent.

The Harmony party is expected to have 25 seats in Latvia's 100-seat parliament, down from 31 in the outgoing parliament.

The current ruling coalition of the Unity party, the ZZS, and the National Alliance took a total of 57.86 percent of the ballots, a fairly stable majority, and is set to take 61 seats in the new parliament, the online edition of the Diena daily reported on Sunday.

In all, 13 political parties and electoral blocs competed for the 100 seats in the Latvian parliament in the parliamentary election on Saturday. Voter turnout reached 57.3 percent in the election, according to the CEC.

Also on Sunday, President Andris Berzins said that he has decided to give political parties a week for negotiations before he names a prime minister.

But the president said that he would not give the parties any instructions or guidelines as he is confident they will succeed in forming a good and professional government.

Asked if the Harmony should also have a place in the new government coalition, Berzins said that this was up to the parties to negotiate.

"This is up to all the parties and the Harmony. I do not want to give any instructions or guidelines. They have a week to assess their results and possibilities," the president said.