Latvians began voting today on European Union entry with supporters expected to win the day despite some grassroots grumbles in the final referendum of the bloc's historic enlargement.
"I vote for Latvia in Europe," President Vaira Vike-Freiberga said as she cast her ballot in the capital Riga. "If I were a betting woman, I'd say 60 per cent in favour." Latvia is the last of 10 countries to decide whether to join the 15-nation European Union. A "Yes" would mark a success for the EU enlargement, while a "No" would leave small Latvia an awkward Baltic outsider.
Many Latvians distrust the European Union just as they did the Soviet Union, and regard Brussels as too remote to care for the interests of a nation of just 2.3 million people.
They are suspicious of the political and economic elite's desire to enter the EU, having seen little benefits from a Baltic boom which saw Latvia's economy soar 6.1 percent in 2002, and may use the vote as a protest against the pro-EU coalition.
Ethnicity remains a sensitive issue in Latvia as almost one-third of the population are Russians who came to live there in the Soviet era, and analysts say they may not be enthusiastic about EU entry as it would distance them further from Russia.
They would also need visas to travel and work inside the EU.