Latvia’s former President, Valdis Zatlers called the referendum just before leaving office in May. Zatlers told voters that it was the only way to decrease the power of oligarchs who made a fortune during the privatization process after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“I believe this is a good opportunity to ensure that parties which represent oligarch interests or vote in the interest of oligarchs will not have the majority in the next parliament,” he told journalists after the vote.
The former president initiated calls for a referendum after the legislature voted to uphold immunity for Ainars Slesers, a parliamentarian Zatlers calls an “oligarch.” Slesers, one of Latvia’s richest men, is the leader of a pro-business opposition party. Zatlers said that allowing him to keep his immunity was impeding a corruption probe.
Zatler’s Reform Party, less than two months old, tied for the most votes with a pro-Russia party, the Harmony Center. Zatlers was an orthopedic surgeon before entering politics in 2007, when the ruling parliamentary coalition nominated him for president. He served as president until July of this year, but failed to win a second term although he had been considered the frontrunner.
Premier Valdis Dombrovskis’s Unity Party, in power until the referendum, received only 11.7 percent of voters’ confidence in a July 22 poll published by the Baltic News Service.
Zatler has announced plans to nominate a candidate from his party for prime minister following the September general elections.
Latvia is currently trying to turn its economy around after it plummeted 18 percent in 2009.
