Record high number of women elected to new parliament

  • 2018-10-08
  • LETA/TBT Staff

RIGA – A record high number of women has been elected to the new parliament, according to the election authority’s data

The 13th Saeima will be comprised of 31 women and 69 men.

This is a record high number of women elected to the parliament. Previously the largest number of women lawmakers elected to the parliament were in the 11th Saeima – 21 women, and the lowest number – eight – were elected to the 6th Saeima.

The average age of the new lawmakers is 47.3 years with the youngest lawmaker being 26 and the older lawmaker being 77.

96 percent of new lawmakers have higher education, 4 percent have secondary education.

52 percent of candidates have reported that they are married, 5 percent are single, and 2 percent divorced.

Also, 72 percent of lawmakers are Latvians, 6 percent are Russian, one lawmaker is Karelian, while 21 percent did not report on their nationality. Among lawmakers elected to the parliament there is also one US citizen and one Canadian citizen.

As reported, Harmony won the election with 19.8 percent of votes. KPV LV followed with 14.25 percent and the New Conservative Party with 13.59 percent voter support. For Development/For! earned 12.04 percent and the National Alliance 11.01 of votes, while almost 9.91 percent of voters supported the Union of Greens and Farmers. New Unity received 6.69 percent of the votes.