Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs's party, the United List, is winning 35.6% of the vote in the parliamentary elections, according to an exit poll. If confirmed after the ballots are counted, it will be the highest result for a single political force in a parliamentary election since Latvia restored its independence in 1991, Bloomberg reports, writes UNN.
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According to an exit poll by LETA and the Latvian Public Broadcaster, Latvia First is in second place with 11.3%, followed by the Progressives with 11.1%. A total of six political forces may clear the 5% threshold.
After the exit poll was released, Kulbergs himself called the preliminary result "enormous voter confidence."
People want change, people want direct communication, people want to see that we are putting the economy first for the country
Elections held against the backdrop of a threat from Russia
One of the key themes of the campaign was Latvia's security and the threat from Russia. The country shares a border with the Russian Federation and Belarus and has remained one of Ukraine's active supporters since the outbreak of the full-scale war.
Riga is strengthening its border and increasing defense spending, seeking to raise it to 5% of GDP. Ahead of the elections, Latvia also asked Germany to send fighter jets to strengthen the protection of its airspace.
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Kulbergs has consistently advocated support for Ukraine. In particular, in September he opposed removing two Russian billionaires from the EU sanctions list.
According to Bloomberg, Latvia is also storing about 20% of Ukrainian government data on its servers to protect it in the event of Russian attacks.
The official election results will be known after the ballots are counted. For now, these are only exit poll figures, so the final distribution of seats in the Saeima and the composition of the future coalition have not yet been determined.
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