Election results blamed on emigrees

TALLINN - Estonian opposition leader and Center Party Chairman Edgar Savisaar noted in his opinion article in Postimees on Oct. 7 that the Estonian right-wing parties have misconstrued the election results in Latvia, that while they estimate that the result was due to the good work done by the government of Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis (New Era), Savisaar is of the opinion that one of the reasons was that the most disgruntled persons have left Latvia due to high unemployment.

Savisaar says that since Estonian right-wing parties and the media have interpreted the Latvian election results as the victory of Ansip’s party and government at the next Estonian elections in March, he has to “interfere in Latvian internal affairs.”

The chairman said he believes that if the nearly 500,000 persons who have left Latvia to work abroad had participated at the polls, it is quite likely that they would have been against right-wing politicians, not for them. “The new emigrees have voted with their feet. Knowing the attitudes of these people, the Latvian national election committee did not do anything particular either to include them in voting,” Savisaar claims.

Savisaar claims that another reason could be that a large part of the electorate, in particular the Russian-speaking persons, failed to show up at the polls because the Latvian left-wing and centrist parties were very certain about their victory and that reduced the motivation of voters. He said that the same is happening in Estonia with the Reform Party, and their support on election day will be a far cry from what the current polls indicate.
“The right wing parties will certainly get their chance of forming a government in Latvia, but it is not clear at all what will become of [the country]. In any case, the fast heralding of Estonian reformist media that the current coalition will continue is wishful thinking, rather than reality,” Savisaar said.

“The result of the coalition talks will depend on who has better nerves and a stronger organization; negotiations will be long and complicated. I forecast that Latvian President Valdis Zatlers will start dawdling about whom to make the proposal to, to form the government after all,” said Savisaar. “In any case, the rejoicing of Estonian right-wing media about the election victory of Dombrovskis is premature, if not short-sighted,” he added.