European Parliament election, 2004 (Latvia)
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European Parliament election, 2004 in Latvia was held on June 12, 2004. This was Latvia's first European Parliament election. There were lists of candidates from 16 political parties. with a total of 1019 candidates.
The voter turnout was 41.20%, with 574,674 voters casting votes. It was significantly lower than the usual turnout for Latvian parliamentary elections (which has been between 71% and 73% for previous three elections) but higher than the turnout in most of other countries which joined EU together with Latvia in 2004.
The election was conducted according to party-list proportional representation system, with at least 5% of votes necessary to gain seats in the parliament. Out of 16 parties, five won seats in the European parliament. Several parties narrowly missed the 5% threshold. The preliminary results are:
| Party | Votes | % | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tēvzemei un Brīvībai/LNNK (Fatherland and Freedom) | 170,819 | 29.8 | 4 |
| Jaunais Laiks (New Era Party) | 112,698 | 19.7 | 2 |
| Par Cilvēka Tiesībām Vienotā Latvijā (For Human Rights in United Latvia) | 61,329 | 10.7 | 1 |
| Tautas Partija (Peoples Party) | 38,114 | 6.7 | 1 |
| Latvijas Ceļš (Latvian Way) | 37,357 | 6.5 | 1 |
| Latvijas Sociāldemokrātiskā Strādnieku Partija (Latvian Social Democratic Labor Party) | 27,437 | 4.8 | 0 |
| Tautas Saskaņas Partija (People's Harmony Party) | 27,423 | 4.8 | 0 |
| Zaļo un Zemnieku Savienība (Union of Greens and Farmers) | 24,405 | 4.3 | 0 |
| Latvijas Pirmā Partija (First Party of Latvia) | 18,614 | 3.3 | 0 |
| Others | 50,316 | 8.8 | 0 |
| Total | 574,674 | 100 | 9 |
The elections were a major loss for the coalition government in power, as the three coalition parties together won only 14.2% of popular vote. Tautas Partija was the only coalition party to win a seat.
The winning party Tēvzemei un Brīvībai/LNNK had most votes in 22 of 26 counties and 5 of 7 cities. The exception was Southeast Latvia (Daugavpils, Krāslava, Rezekne and Ludza counties and cities of Daugavpils and Rēzekne) which were won by the Par Cilvēka Tiesībām Vienotā Latvijā party, due to large percentage of ethnically Russian voters in this area.
See also: European Parliament election, 2004, List of election results, Politics of Latvia