RIGA - Latvia's ruling coalition has been returned to power in the nation's general elections, winning an extra six seats and a stronger mandate govern.
The result marks the first time a ruling government has won a second term in Latvia's 15 years of independence.
The coalition, headed by Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis, won 51 of the 100 seats in the general election, held on Oct. 7.
The three parties that make up the governing coalition 's the People's Party, the Greens and Farmers Union, and Latvia's First 's collected a combined 44.8 percent of votes.
The Central Electoral Committee said all votes had been counted in all 1,006 polling stations by the afternoon of Oct. 8.
The opposition center-right party New Time won 16.38 percent, according to the preliminary results.
In all, seven political parties have won seats in Latvia's 100-seat parliament, including the left-wing Harmony Center (14.42 percent), the nationalist For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK (6.95 percent), and the leftist For Human Rights In United Latvia (6.02 percent).
The Latvian Social Democratic Workers Party (3.50 percent), left-wing bloc Motherland (2.09 percent), nationalist party All For Latvia (1.49 percent) and New Democrats (1.26 percent) failed to overcome the 5 percent vote threshold set for winning seats in the parliament.
The rest of the 19 political parties taking part in Latvia's parliamentary elections received less than 1 percent of votes.
Latvia held its parliamentary elections on October 7. A total of 19 political parties fielding 1,024 candidates competed for 100 seats in the parliament to be elected for a four-year term in proportional elections.
A total of 901,796 voters or 62.28 per cent of Latvia's eligible voters cast ballots in the general elections.
