Dombrovskis coalition wins majority in Latvia election
Monday, 4 October 2010
LATVIA, Oct. 3 (Bloomberg): Latvia's ruling coalition may form the next government after the three parties won a majority in the Baltic nation's first parliamentary election since it suffered the world's deepest recession.
The parties backing Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis won 57.6 per cent of the vote with 96 per cent of precincts reporting. The premier's Unity party has 30.6 per cent to 25.8 per cent for the opposition Harmony Center. Unity may get 34 seats in the 100-member legislature, according to estimates from Latvian TV, the second-biggest total for any party since 1993.
The voting was a "positive surprise," Dombrovskis, 39, said in televised remarks after the preliminary results were released. Preliminary results show the government will "gain a convincing majority, which to my mind is reason for the current government to continue to work," he said.
Unity topped the vote even after Dombrovskis raised taxes and cut spending, including wages for public employees, to meet the terms of a 7.5 billion-euro ($10.3 billion) bailout led by the International Monetary Fund and European Union. The next premier will have to reduce the budget deficit by almost two- thirds by 2012 to comply with EU rules.
Latvia's economy shrank a cumulative 25 per cent in 2008 and 2009 as a property boom turned to bust and the country's second- largest bank failed.
Dombrovskis, a former finance minister and central bank economist, was named prime minister on Feb. 26, 2009, two weeks after his predecessor's four-party Cabinet collapsed. Upon taking power, he warned that Latvia was "on the verge of bankruptcy." His government approved a supplementary budget that ensured the continued flow of funds from the IMF and EU.
Representatives of the governing parties will meet today, Dombrovskis said.
The parties backing Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis won 57.6 per cent of the vote with 96 per cent of precincts reporting. The premier's Unity party has 30.6 per cent to 25.8 per cent for the opposition Harmony Center. Unity may get 34 seats in the 100-member legislature, according to estimates from Latvian TV, the second-biggest total for any party since 1993.
The voting was a "positive surprise," Dombrovskis, 39, said in televised remarks after the preliminary results were released. Preliminary results show the government will "gain a convincing majority, which to my mind is reason for the current government to continue to work," he said.
Unity topped the vote even after Dombrovskis raised taxes and cut spending, including wages for public employees, to meet the terms of a 7.5 billion-euro ($10.3 billion) bailout led by the International Monetary Fund and European Union. The next premier will have to reduce the budget deficit by almost two- thirds by 2012 to comply with EU rules.
Latvia's economy shrank a cumulative 25 per cent in 2008 and 2009 as a property boom turned to bust and the country's second- largest bank failed.
Dombrovskis, a former finance minister and central bank economist, was named prime minister on Feb. 26, 2009, two weeks after his predecessor's four-party Cabinet collapsed. Upon taking power, he warned that Latvia was "on the verge of bankruptcy." His government approved a supplementary budget that ensured the continued flow of funds from the IMF and EU.
Representatives of the governing parties will meet today, Dombrovskis said.