Ruling party calls for early elections

2009-01-16
TBT Staff in cooperation with BNS

RIGA - The ruling People's Party has called for early elections to take place in the country sometime this spring.

The party released a statement on Friday saying that the current developments in Latvia could lead to a deep political crisis and economic collapse. Therefore, the statement said, the parliament should immediately start working on the legal framework for early parliament elections.

The People's Party said that the riots that took place outside the parliament building earlier this week was an act of vandalism that must be strongly denounced and would not be acceptable in any European country.

"But we have not seen the Latvian president, the community and the opinion makers unanimously denouncing those events at the parliament. Moreover, an impression is created that many political forces are interested in further escalation of violence and silently perceive this a support to their policies," the People's Party said in the statement.

"All the proposals made so far about solving the situation, for example, by amending the Constitution, reorganizing the government or the entire coalition, organizing new referendums and making minor adjustments to the election law are inadequate in the given situation," said the ruling party.