The crying silence will not be there yet / day

Municipal elections, in which Riga votes again with all other municipalities, is approaching with the spectrum of attitudes that have already been heard from « Slesers comes » until « there is nothing to vote for ». At the same time, they are the first municipal elections during Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine.

Or and how can it affect voter activity as well as other forecasts Saturday He made a political scientist Janis Iksten, not just the unfair – what he will vote for, and whether he will vote at all.

What will be these municipal elections or interesting? With something different from the previous ones?

In a way, it is unsuccessful that the word « elections » is a pluraler. Because there is no one local elections, there are 43 different elections in one day with 43 different candidates, party sets, with different problems. There are municipalities where elections arise more interest or intrigue. For example, Riga has always been in the spotlight because it is still half the country’s economy. Now the balance of power in Riga between Latvians and East Slavs is a relatively half – it gives these municipal elections extra tension, unlike 2013 and 2017 elections, where the balance of power was quite one goal in favor of For harmonization.

Elections elsewhere, but they do not bring the media and society’s increased interest, people simply go and vote – as much as they go. I think voter participation will be a big enough problem. In the 2020s and 2021, a third of the voted voted. I suspect that this time too, participation will be low. If the 2020 extraordinary elections in Riga said that « the Russians stayed at home »…

Then there was no full invasion of Russia in Ukraine yet.

The basic cause of « staying at home » was not a code, but the fact that more than ten years of Riga had managed Harmony. When everything there, thanks to various corruption scandals, began to fall and crashed, it turned out that its management was not so successful. Who is to blame? Of course, of course Harmony. Some people felt confused or deceived, and they had nothing to vote for. The dismissal of the City Council only strengthened it. When looking at data from polling stations, it was seen that those in which For harmonization Historically, there were the best results, the participation was lower.