Re: Further Rot in the State of Latvia

Sveiki!

Martin wrote:

,,With a system based upon voting for a party, who then allocates
seats to their members
based upon the proportion of national votes is very much the root of
the problem, in my opinion."

That's actually incorrect, although many voters believe that seats
are apportioned to each party according to the percentage of votes
received nationally. Parties have encouraged this notion, even though
it's not true. In fact, seats are distributed strictly at a district
level and unlike most of the Scandinavian countries (except for
Finland) no compensatory seats are awarded to parties at a national
level to align seat distribution with the national percentages. In the
last election this led to a great deal of confusion on election night
and the ensuing days when results were announced. ZZS (the Green and
Agrarian coalition) nationally received 9.4% of the vote - and 12
seats. But LPP (the ministers) received 9.5% of the vote and only 10
seats. Little wonder that a survey published this spring implied that
2/3 of the voters distrust the current system.

You're certainly right about the lack of accountability - but, then
again, voters don't really know which candidates they're actually
voting for and against. (What also is never mentioned is that which
candidates get a seat in parliament is entirely determined by those
voters that use their plusses and minuses; party list order is
completely irrelevant.) Locomotives, who win in more than one district,
after the first round of counting can receive as many as five seats.
But, because of the mathematics involved, after the second round of
counting the locomotives are almost always elected from one of the two
largest districts - Riga or Vidzeme. Their places in the three
smaller - and, btw, much poorer - districts are filled by the so
called 'gray horses': candidates who are unknown to the vast
majority of the districts' electorate. From this angle, the election
law is not unlike a 'bait and switch' con. Some parties are
talking about increasing the number of candidates standing for election
and cutting down on the use of locomotives, but we'll have to wait &
see how many will take that risk.

Visu labu,

Elizabete

martin wrote:
Peteris Cedrin? (Peteris Cedrins) wrote:
martin wrote:
Peteris Cedrin? (Peteris Cedrins) wrote:
martin wrote:
Peteris Cedrin? (Peteris Cedrins) wrote:
Two of the three representatives of Latvia to the OSCE are now as
likely to take the Kremlin line as they are to represent Latvia.

The Saeima voted 47:30 this morning to include Dainis Turlais in
Latvia's OSCE delegation. A former Soviet colonel educated at the
General Staff Academy in Moscow (graduating in 1992 [!]) and veteran of
the Afghanistan campaign (who hid the fact that he continued to receive
a pension from the Russian military) Turlais "uses the language of
Nazis" (Aivars Stranga, quoted by Aivars Ozoliòð).

Now in what I call the Party of the Cloth (LPP, the "Christian" party,
currently making homophobia the centerpiece of its campaign for this
autumn's parliamentary elections), Turlais was recently put forth to
lead the anti-corruption bureau -- shortly after it was announced that
he was under investigation for corruption.

So how is this sort of thing treated in the Latvian media? You would
think the opposition parties could capitalise on this, and with an ever
present eye on the next election, inflict some real political damage
via the media by questioning how could it be possible that a party
could put forth someone to lead an anti-corruption bureau who was
recently under investigation for corruption themselves. Or doesn't it
work like that in Latvia?

Regards,
Martin

Dmitry,

The OSCE is emasculated by Russia, which has long tried to use the
organization for its own ends, especially with regard to Moldova --

http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?volume_id=407&issue_id=3400&article_id=2370007

Martin,

(Long sigh.) Well, it doesn't work like that in Latvia, perhaps partly
for reasons similar to the one that Vidas gave regarding Lithuania's
(Lithuanians') "readiness for democracy" (or lack of it) in the thread
on the fall of their government. The first thing you should realize is
that at least a quarter of the political spectrum, i.e., much of the
opposition, is quite simply out of the game -- barring an underhanded
deal in a smoke-filled room (always a real possibility), the "Russian"
(or "pro-Russian") parties will not be part of any government because
they hold positions that are unacceptable to the "Latvian" parties.
There are many parties, most of them with ratings well below the 5%
threshold for representation in the Saeima. The viable "Latvian"
parties are pretty much without exception top-down structures beholden
to particular oligarchs. Absurdity has become the norm -- the Social
Democrats, for instance, will be running on a joint list with the
Europhobes (Euroskeptics) -- this after flirting with the new, young
far right. The Greens are wedded to the Peasants and belong to oil
interests. Lembergs, the Caesar of Ventspils ("transparency is not a
striptease") has decided not to resign as mayor despite his indictment.
The People's Party belongs to Mr. Slice (?kele), who sneaks about in
the Channel Islands with the millions he made in his multiple seatings
as PM. One of the most "normal" parties, Latvia's Way, long ago lost
its way and redefines itself periodically (liberal last year, I think
it's conservative this year). The more enlightened Russkies have turned
out to be far less popular than the rabid Interfrontists and their
spawn. Rep?e "the Martian" won't leave his (fairly "normal") party to
people who could actually govern. The old far right will perhaps be
eclipsed by the young far right, since the old far right does nothing
but strike rightist poses and sputter nationalist rhetoric (the ongoing
competition in nationalist rhetoric is beyond pathetic and would maybe
make Hui seem like a true patriot if he ever set foot in Latvia). And
so on, and so on. In summary -- sure, the papers (or those media
beholden to opposite interests) make hay of every scandal. Every party
has its scandals. The parties that have added churchgoing to
pseudo-patriotism have especially fragrant scandals (e.g., the highly
moral Martian and his Minister of Health, a surgeon who thought it
perfectly okay to double-bill). They are cliques, not parties -- you
pick your favorite oligarch and vote for the least filthy, or vote on
an issue or two (if they even _have_ issues; serious programs are not
in evidence). Most people waver between apathy and cynicism, and the
typical response to "look at how brazen that theft was" is either "good
for him!" or "they all do that, but at least Trulais [sic] is a real
officer and not a politruk, and did you know that __'s wife owns the __
chain?" It doesn't work, Martin, because there is no such thing as
voting "them" out -- several parties will make it in, jockey for more
lucrative embraces or better wrestling holds, and then play musical
chairs, spitting accusations at each other and ignoring the electorate
until the next election. Don't ask me about a possible solution -- I
don't know of a solution, and I don't even know which party I will vote
for this time.

Latvia is a parliamentary democracy, isn't it? So presumably each
elected member of parliament represents some electoral region, isn't
that right? So what is to stop you or anyone else from running against
Mr Slice, or the Martian, or anyone else if they happen to represent
your local constituency? In a democracy, power belongs only to those
who participate.

Regards,
Martin

Nope -- very wrong. Parliamentary democracies differ drastically by
structure, and members of parliament most definitely do not represent
regions in Latvia. I won't get into this because it is probably not
very interesting to most -- but suffice it to say that there are no
local constituencies in national elections.

Here is an overview --

http://latviansonline.com/index.php/columns/article/1243/

As to your undertone -- I expected that from you, Martin. Sorry -- I am
not a politician, but I participate by voting and expressing my
opinions. I always vote, no matter how disgusted I am, and I will
definitely vote this autumn. That _is_ participation. What I tried to
explain to you is that it can't make a substantial difference. But the
mechanism is not at fault, in my view.

Sorry, no undertone was implied, it's not uncommon here for some local
green grocer to run against some federal member of parliament on some
local issue, and it is not unheard for a leader of a political party to
lose their seat in an election. Well, from reading that link, it seems
to me that the mechanism is very much at fault. With a system based
upon voting for a party, who then allocates seats to their members
based upon the proportion of national votes is very much the root of
the problem, in my opinion. There is no personal accountability to the
electorate at large. Politicians ought to compete personally against
each other in an election, and from that the proportion of seats
allocated to a party is dependant upon success of each individual party
member running for election.

Regards,
Martin

.

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