Elections, EU – Baltic States, Latvia

Levits, who has already been officially registered as a presidential candidate, has secured the support of the National Alliance, the New Conservative Party, For Development/For and New Unity, as well as six lawmakers of the KPV LV group in Saeima.

If all these Saeima member vote in the presidential election as they have promised, Levits might be elected president by 55 votes.

Meanwhile, the opposition Union of Greens and Farmers have nominated Ombudsman Juris Jansons as their presidential candidate, Uldis Augulis, the leader of the Greens/Farmers group in Saeima, praised Jansons’ extensive knowledge and experience acquired in his current position.

Also, some members of KPV LV party’s internal opposition want to nominate Smits for president, the politician told LETA today.

Smits said that he had discussed the matter with fellow party members. Asked if he has discussed his possible presidential bid also with representatives of other Saeima groups, Smits said evasively that all political parties are discussing the topic and it is clear that various candidates are needed for the high office.

Saeima member Aldis Gobzems told LETA that he would formulate his choice regarding presidential candidates on Monday but added that he would be “fantastically glad to see [composer and former Saeima member] Raimonds Pauls among the candidates”.

As Saeima member Linda Liepina (KPV LV) told LETA earlier today, the party’s internal opposition has decided to nominate their own candidate for Latvia’s next president. The candidate has been picked already but his name is not being revealed as yet.

Harmony will not nominate a candidate for president - the party will judge all other candidates by comparing their moral values to those of the party's former candidate, Baptist Pastor Peteris Sprogis.

Janis Urbanovics, chairman of Harmony's Saeima group, told LETA that Harmony would not nominate a candidate for the president. The nomination of Sprogis last June raised the bar for all other candidates. Harmony will remain true to itself and judge all the other candidates by comparing them to the candidacy of Sprogis.

"Our country needs a moral leader," stressed Urbanovics, adding that Harmony would seek to meet with all the candidates for the president to see what moral values they stood for.

"We are interested in moral principles. The lack thereof is the reason why people in Latvia do not trust politicians," said Urbanovics.

Incumbent President Raimonds Vejonis said this week he had decided not to seek a second term.