Latvia Partial Counts: United List Dominates as Official Tallies Roll In
With 58% of precincts reporting, Kulbergs' party ~37%; ZZS clears 5% threshold in LSM update
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File photo: Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs. Photo: Stenbocki maja, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Count delayed by early-vote changes
Vote counting began more than two hours later than planned. The Central Election Commission (CVK) had expected counting to start at 10:00 p.m., two hours after polls closed at 8 p.m. Saturday, but staff needed to verify and annul early votes that voters later changed, LSM English reported. CVK head Māris Zviedris said at a Sunday morning press conference that more than 650 people changed their choice after casting early votes, causing confusion.
"What does an employee do when faced with some major uncertainties? They go through it very carefully, check it, it takes extra time, and it looks like it took more time than we had planned," Zviedris said, according to LSM English. He predicted the hitch would delay results for parties entering the Saeima by a couple of hours, with preliminary results possibly around 4:00 a.m.
The partial returns mark a shift from Saturday's exit-poll narrative: rather than projecting ZZS out of parliament, the early official count put the agrarian party above the threshold, while United List's share also ran higher than exit-poll estimates, according to LSM English.
