Latvia to start consultations on next gov't in weeks

Official consultations on Latvia's next coalition government will be started in a couple of weeks time after a general election on Saturday produced an inconclusive result, a spokesperson at Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis' office said on Sunday.

The president expects the seven political parties that have won seats in the new parliament to come to some agreement on common work for the benefit of the whole nation, the spokesperson said.

President Vejonis, who also has to nominate Latvia's next prime minister, expects the candidate to follow the country's current foreign policy line, continue boosting national security, balance Latvia's budget, carry necessary reforms and strengthen the rule of law.

Incumbent Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis said that although it was still possible for center-right parties to form a new coalition government, the negotiations process was likely to be complicated.

Kucinskis' centrist Greens and Farmers Union saw voter support falling from 19.53 percent in the 2014 parliamentary election to 10 percent in this year's polls.

Nils Usakovs, the leader of Harmony, a left-wing party that won the parliamentary election with 19.9 percent of the votes, said on public radio that the candidate for prime minister should be chosen from Harmony as the winner of the election.

If the center-right parties continue to insist on leaving Harmony in opposition, their negotiations on a new coalition may drag on well into the winter, Usakovs predicted.

According to the preliminary election results, the seven political parties and blocs that have won mandates in Latvia's new parliament include Harmony with 19.9 percent of the votes, KPV LV with 14.1 percent, the New Conservative Party with 13.6 percent, For Development/For with 12 percent, the National Alliance with 11 percent, the Greens and Farmers Union with 10 percent and New Unity with 6.7 percent.