Monday, May 21, 2007

Presidential elections in Latvia -surprizes!? (updated)

After a fishing weekend on the Gauja I'm back in Riga and the summer is in full bloom! Fishing went well and because of too much sun & fresh air I felt a bit tired today. Yesterday there was nothing spectacular on the De Facto TV programm (Latvian TV) about the domestic politics in Latvia. It means that the probability of having the Maire of Ventspils stipendiate list disclosed until presidential elections on June 6 is diminishing every second.

Couple of hours ago there came an unexpected announcement that presidential elections would take place on May 31 instead! The speaker of the Saeima, Mr Indulis Emsis (ZZS) while answering to the journalist question: why there is such a need to have presidential elections a week prior previously agreed date announced, that the May 31 date is simply beautiful.

In addition rumours about Egils Levits as non partisan candidate for the presidential post materialized, and the present governing coalition probably thought about the common candidate, but unfortunately this opportunity was offered by the speaker of the Saeima. Therefore the most likely scenario for first round of elections is that neither of the candidates -Māris Riekstiņš (TP), Karīna Pētersone (PP/LC) and Sandra Kalniete - gets single majority (51) support of the parliament, and the second round shall be announced. After the first round there is a possibility of the reshuffle in the government and replacement of Aigars Kalvītis (TP) with Ainārs Šlesers (PP). Obviously, the candidate from the People's party for the second round of the presidential elections would be Kalvītis. Brrrrr... .

What a speed of events in Latvia these days!!! Just 30.min ago Member of the European Communities Court, Mr Egils Levits declined his candidacy for the post of the Latvian president. Mr Šlesers immediately announced that governing coalition must agree on a common candidate until tomorrow evening. Therefore, I assume that the scenario described above seems the most likely one and reshuffle of the government is probably on agenda. Overheated economy, emigrating workforce, housing bubble looming on the horizont, and 25% current account deficit is unsustainable for the Latvian small economy, thus someone must get start acting! Mr. Kalvitis is not coping with his tasks, thus he should realize that and GO!

p.s. Also there was an attempt to assassinate the head of the Latvian Customs office criminal investigation unit Mr. Vaškevics this late afternoon. He luckily survived and PM and the Minister of Interior have announced that this heinous act was an attack on the Latvian state. Mr. Vaškevics survived the attack, however he is still odioze enough due to the scrutinity of the Corruption Fighting Bureau that has discovered that his real and declared incomes do not match, thus how credible are anouncements of the PM...

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