Latvia braces for plebiscite expected to force snap election

RIGA: Latvia holds a referendum Saturday in which voters are widely expected to force the dissolution of parliament and fresh elections.

Then-president Valdis Zatlers called the unprecedented plebiscite on May 28 after lawmakers blocked a graft probe, taking a gamble that cost him his job just five days later.

He said it was time to break the clout of politician-businessmen known as "oligarchs" and restore battered public faith in the former Soviet-ruled republic's lawmakers.

The previously non-partisan Zatlers, who has created his own party since losing office, hammered home his message ahead of Saturday's vote.

"I got fed up of living in a country ruled by lies, cynicism and greed," he said in a statement, calling for a display of people power.

"I have opened the door to change. Now it is up to you to step through it and feel that you can take control of your own destiny," he added.

Polling stations will be open from 7:00 am (0400 GMT) to 10:00 pm (1900 GMT).

The vote seems to be a done deal.

With no quorum required, a simple majority will be enough to axe the parliament elected last October and pave the way for a new general election in September.

A survey by pollsters SKDS suggested that 54 percent of the electorate would take part Saturday, of whom more than 90 percent would vote to dissolve the 100-member Saeima.

"It will certainly be a protest vote," SKDS director Arnis Kaktins told AFP.

"However, to state that this would be just a protest against oligarchs would be an oversimplification. Our polls over quite a long period of time have shown distrust and dissatisfaction with our parliament regardless of the oligarch factor," he said.

Zatlers deployed a never-used presidential power to call the plebiscite in this European Union nation of 2.2 million.

Latvia's head of state is elected by parliament. On June 2, Zatlers failed to secure a second term when angry MPs opted for banker-turned-politician Andris Berzins, of the Greens and Farmers Alliance.

The alliance is part of Latvia's government but at loggerheads with the Unity bloc of centre-right Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis, which supported Zatlers.

Analysts said a snap election could benefit the left-leaning Harmony Centre.

It draws support from Latvia's large Russian-speaking minority, whose parties have never been in government since independence in 1991 after five decades of Soviet rule.

The political wrangling is not seen as having major economic impact in Latvia, which has emerged from the world's deepest recession and remains locked in an austerity drive.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011