Next Latvian general elections to have clearly regional character - expert

RIGA - The next Latvian general elections in October this year will have a clearly regional character with parties expected to adapt their election programs to suit the voters in the particular region, said political scientist Filips Rajevskis, the co-owner of the PR agency Mediju Tilts.

Speaking during a discussion about the challenges to the Latvian election system, he said that developing an election program was a great challenge to the political parties that had to adapt their election campaigns to the specific problems in each of the five electoral regions.

"With a program for [the Latvian capital] Riga, you cannot win the elections in the Latgale program, and a program designed for the Zemgale province won't bring you a victory in Riga," he said.

The upcoming general elections will have a clearly regional character, meaning that the political parties will structure their election programs and make the election promises based on the problems prevailing in specific regions, Rajevskis said, suggesting that it might be worth considering the possibility of requiring the parties to produce individual election programs for each of the electoral regions in the future.