Who will be the next president? I don’t know.
Who is running for the post? I don’t know.
And that’s 10 days before the election. Worry not, though, Latvian citizens don’t get to elect their leader. It’s the job they entrust to their public servants, whom they don’t elect directly.
Some names, of course, have been thrown around for quite some time.
“I don’t remember his name, but you know he’s young, slim, and handsome,” said a Russian-speaking woman about one candidate for the president on the Latvian National Radio.
She was talking about the 44-year-old Maris Riekstins (pictured here), the chief of staff in the office of the prime minister and a former ambassador to the U.S. The ruling Tautas Partija (People’s Party, or TP) nominated Riekstins to be the next resident in the Riga Castle.
Presidential elections are slated to take place next Thursday in Parliament. Last week the coalition partners have been meeting with candidates already as they have until Thursday to nominate their candidates officially.
Most the next president is going to be a relative unknown and not one of the three nominated by the parties.
Politically, the president is supposed to be above the party influence because he or she ought to be able to stand up to the political pressure from the legislature.
President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, whose term expires on July 7, rose to the challenge when she stopped two laws from taking an effect before people offered their opinion on a referendum. It’s unclear if any of the current candidates would have done the same.
Parties are now debating the merits of two candidates from the ruling coalition, however most discussions are taking place behind closed doors, which frustrates people such as myself, who support the government transparency.
None of the parties holds the 51-vote majority in the Saema needed to appoint the next president. The ruling coalition, which holds a slim majority in the 100-member parliament, failed to come up with a single candidate after a coalition partner Latvijas Pirma Partija nominated its own former integration minister and minister of culture Karina Petersone for the post.