Latvia

The 100 members of the unicameral Latvian Parliament are elected every 4 years in a (nearly) proportional electoral system from open lists in 5 constituencies. The national legal electoral threshold is 5%, which which is calculated not based on valid votes, but all votes (in 2022, a party with 5.03% failed to cross it due to this reason).

The smallest constituency has 12 seats, and the largest (Riga) 35 seats. Within the constituency, seats are allocated using the Sainte-Lague method. 

Voters can vote for and against any number of candidates within their chosen list. The original order of the list does not matter, as the election is completely open-list: the voters of a party decide the order of the list by the difference between their positive and negative votes.

The president (head of state) is elected by the parliament. More soon.

MEPs from Latvia are elected every 5 years (at the same time as in the other EU member states). The entire country forms one constituency, in which 9 MEPs were elected in 2024. Due to "degressive proportionality", Latvian voters have significantly more representatives per capita than the EU average.

The main principle in the election of the Parliament (within the countries) is proportionality: by default, only a proportional system can be used, but beyond this, the member states decide for themselves what type. Latvia, like most member states, uses an open-list proportional system. This means that voters can vote not only for a party list, but also for a candidate on the list, thus allowing them the chance to collectively change the predetermined order of the candidates. The allocation of seats between parties is done using the the Sainte-Lague (Webster) method. There is no legal electoral threshold, but in practice (due to the 9 seats) a minimum of about 5.5% is required to obtain a seat.

The minimum age for active suffrage (the right to vote) is 18 years, and for passive suffrage (standing for election) is 21 years. Voting not compulsory, in-person voting at embassies is possible (from other EU member states and third countries) as is postal voting, however, proxy voting or online voting is not possible.

This is the description of the electoral system of Latvia as of 30.07.2026 on Electoral Knowledgebase. Sources and further information on this topic:

• 2024 European Parliament elections: National rules (European Parliament)

Feedback, criticism is welcome and appreciated.