Presidential election in Latvia 2015

On June 3, 2015, the election of the country's president took place in Latvia . The previous incumbent Andris Bērziņš no longer ran. Raimonds Vējonis , leader of the Latvian Green Party, was elected in the fifth ballot .

Electoral process

The Latvian President is elected by the 100 members of the Latvian Parliament with a simple majority . All candidates can run in the first two ballots, in the following rounds the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Whoever can collect 51 votes is elected. If there is only one candidate left and if he does not achieve this majority due to a corresponding number of abstentions, a new election date will be scheduled after 10 days at the earliest and 15 days at the latest.

Candidates

• Mārtiņš Bondars , 43 years old, Federation of Regions , former head of the office of President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga
• Sergejs Dolgopolovs , 75 years old, Harmonie , former Deputy Mayor of Riga
• Egils Levits , 59 years old, national association , judge at the European Court of Justice
• Raimonds Vējonis , 48 years old, Alliance of Greens and Peasants , Acting Defense Minister and Chairman of the Latvian Green Party .

Before the election, the three parties of the ruling coalition under Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma were unable to agree on a common candidate. Two candidates from the government camp competed against each other: Egils Levits and Raimonds Vējonis. Unity , the third party in the ruling coalition, decided not to have its own candidate and promised Vējonis its support.

• 

  Mārtiņš Bondars

• 

  Sergejs Dolgopolovs

• 

  Egils Levits

• 

  Raimonds Vējonis

Election result

After none of the candidates had previously received the required majority, Raimonds Vējonis prevailed in the fifth ballot with 55 votes cast for him. He took up his post on July 8, 2015.

1st ballot

candidate	For	On the other hand
Mārtiņš Bondars	7th	86
Sergejs Dolgopolovs	23	70
Egils Levits	24	69
Raimonds Vējonis	34	59

99 votes were cast, 6 of which were deemed invalid. Five MPs had voted against all candidates.

2nd ballot

candidate	For	On the other hand
Mārtiņš Bondars	7th	89
Sergejs Dolgopolovs	24	72
Egils Levits	25th	71
Raimonds Vējonis	34	59

99 votes were cast, 3 of which were deemed invalid. Five MPs had voted against all candidates.

3rd ballot

candidate	For	On the other hand
Sergejs Dolgopolovs	23	73
Egils Levits	26th	70
Raimonds Vējonis	35	61

98 votes were cast, two of which were invalid. Twelve MPs voted against all candidates.

4th ballot

candidate	For	On the other hand
Egils Levits	26th	72
Raimonds Vējonis	46	52

99 votes were cast, 2 of which were invalid. 26 MPs voted against both candidates.

5th ballot

candidate	For	On the other hand
Raimonds Vējonis	55	42

98 votes were cast, one of which was invalid. 42 MPs voted against Vējonis.

swell

• Carsten Schmiester: Presidential election in Putin's shadow . Deutschlandfunk, June 3, 2015.
• Latvia becomes the first EU country with a green head of state . Zeit Online, June 3, 2015

Footnotes

1. ↑ Reinhard Veser: Vejonis elected President of Latvia . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, June 5, 2015, p. 5.

Web links

• Information on the election and the candidates , compiled by the Infobalt association
• Graphic summary of the election process and the candidates on the LETA news agency website (Latvian)