Latvians likely to dissolve parliament in vote today

LATVIANS ARE expected to vote to dissolve their parliament today in a referendum called by Valdis Zatlers before he was ousted as president by angry MPs last month.

Parliament turned against Mr Zatlers after he called for the stripping of legal immunity from an MP suspected of corruption. He also denounced the influence of business “oligarchs” in Latvian politics.

One of his last acts before parliament replaced him as president was to call today’s referendum on dissolving the chamber, which surveys suggest will be approved by an overwhelming majority of people in a Baltic state regularly rocked by political scandals.

If the Latvians decide to break up parliament, allies of Mr Zatlers – including prime minister Valdis Dombrovskis – will be expected to do well in early elections in September, when voters will get another chance to register their displeasure at the perceived power of murky tycoons and their political friends.

“A main goal of the elections will be to ensure that oligarchs, and the parties supporting oligarchs, do not control a majority in the next parliament,” Mr Dombrovskis said this week. “If this will happen, then I would say the former president’s initiative of dissolving the parliament will pay off.”

Mr Zatlers, whose thwarted anti-corruption drive boosted his popularity, has launched a new party and plans to nominate his own candidate for prime minister if the party wins seats in the likely September election.

“We will do our best to end the oligarchs’ power in Latvia,” he said, adding he was prepared to form a government with any parties rejecting links with oligarchs. Latvia’s rich and secretive tycoons, and the politicians that are seen as doing their bidding, have become the target for people’s ire in the Baltic state as it recovers slowly from a deep recession. Many oligarchs are accused of having dubious links to Latvia’s Soviet-era master, Russia.

The country of 2.25 million people is emerging slowly from what many analysts call the world’s worst recession. Latvia’s economy shrank by 18 per cent in 2009, ending a surge of credit-fuelled growth, and unemployment spiralled as the government introduced swingeing cutbacks.

A simple majority will be enough to dissolve parliament in today’s poll, and surveys predict more than 70 per cent of voters support such a move.