Exit polls: Pro-Russia party wins Latvian vote (AP)

RIGA, Latvia ? A left-wing, pro-Russia party was poised to win a snap election in Latvia, according to two exit polls released Saturday, marking a milestone for Latvia, where parties distrustful of Russia have won all national elections over the past 20 years.

Since 1991, when Latvia restored its independence from the Soviet Union, no party catering to the country's ethnic Russian minority has been included in government, a streak that ethnic Russians ? who make up one-third of Latvia's 2.2 million people ? hope to change.

Two exit polls ? one by the Leta news agency and the other by the Baltic News Agency ? show the Harmony Center winning nearly 29 percent of votes.

By contrast, the ruling Unity party stands to gain approximately 19-20 percent, according to the two polls, while an upstart party and close Unity ally ? Zatlers' Reform Party ? also managed 19-20 percent.

Leaders of the two parties ? which could together pull in about 45 seats in the 100-member Parliament ? have already said they would begin coalition talks Sunday in order to seize the initiative in forming the next government, possibly keeping Harmony Center in the opposition.

Analysts believe the two parties are likely to leave Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis in his position, which would be a key signal to international lenders and investors who want assurance that Latvia will stick to its commitments to cut its budget deficit and keep on track to adopting the euro in 2014.

Still, to secure a parliamentary majority, the two parties will probably have to invite one of three parties expected to break the 5 percent barrier.

Other than Harmony, there is the populist Greens and Farmers Union, which exit polls show won 11-12 percent of the vote, and the National Alliance.

Given the rise of pro-Russia Harmony, the nationalists are certain to pull off a strong performance. The Leta poll showed them winning 13.7 percent, while the BNS poll has the right-wing alliance gaining over 16 percent.

"Forming a coalition, I think, will be more difficult than a year ago," former President Vaira Vike-Freiberga told public radio on Saturday. "Honestly speaking, I don't see that we are being offered something that could drastically change the situation."

Latvia is emerging from one of the world's worst recessions. Economic output contracted by nearly one-fourth in 2008-10. Unemployment remains over 16 percent, and many young people have left the country to work in other European Union countries.

The snap election takes place after the previous legislature, elected last October, was dissolved in a nationwide referendum in July. Some 94 percent of voters supported dissolution.

The referendum was held after former President Valdis Zatlers proposed booting the legislature for lawmakers' interference in a major probe into high-level corruption.

Zatlers, who was not re-elected by Parliament in June, went on to create his own centrist party whose core aim is to crack down on the cozy relationship between business in government in the tiny Baltic state.

The exit polls show that Zatlers might have made headway in accomplishing this goal. The Greens and Farmers Union, which is led by Zatlers' archenemy, Aivars Lembergs, is likely to see its position in Parliament weakened, according to exit polls.

The Slesers' Reform Party, which is headed by another influential politician-businessman, Ainars Slesers, will not apparently make the 5 percent threshold, exit polls show.

Zatlers decided to sack Parliament in May after lawmakers granted Slesers immunity and barred investigators from searching his properties for evidence in the anti-corruption probe.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110917/ap_on_re_eu/eu_latvia_election

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