Latvian parliamentary election exit polls show PM Kulbergs' party leading

(Central News Agency, Riga, comprehensive foreign news report on the 3rd) Exit polls for the Latvian parliamentary election were released tonight. The results showed that the party of Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs was in the lead, indicating that Latvia will maintain its pro-European and pro-Ukrainian line.

Agence France-Presse reported that, however, populist parties also performed well in this election. The election campaign was mainly affected by concerns about the threat from neighboring Russia and the rising cost of living in the country.

According to an exit poll released by the public media Latvian Public Broadcasting Company (LSM), the center-right United List (United List) led by Prime Minister Kuhlbergs led with 35.6% of the vote.

"This is not the final result yet, but it is already higher than expected," Kuhlbergs told the media after the results were announced.

"It means that the people really want change," he added. He said it represented "economic growth" and "creating a future for (Latvian) children." Kulbergs only became prime minister in May this year.

However, previous polls have shown that the ruling coalition will be declining in power, and I am afraid that it will be difficult to maintain its current form and continue to operate.

The Union of Greens and Farmers, one of the partners in the governing coalition, appears to have secured only 3.7% of the vote, below the 5% threshold required to enter parliament.

Coupled with the predicted vote results of other governing coalition parties, it shows that Kulbergs will have to form a new governing coalition.

While exit polls are generally fairly reliable, voters' reluctance to publicly admit support for more radical parties could mean that populist parties may actually get more votes than expected.

Roberts Kits, an analyst at the Latvian Institute for Strategic and Economic Solutions (LaSER), a Latvian think tank, told AFP: "I do think that the biggest increase in the actual results compared to the exit polls will be the parties with support from Russian-speaking voters, namely Sovereign Power and Latvia First."

Sigita Struberga, secretary-general of the Latvian Transatlantic Organization (LATO), said it was too early to accurately predict the composition of any future governing coalition.