Latvian Saeima elections 2026: Myths and Misconceptions

While everyone likes to be talked about, such coverage can sometimes lead to Latvians pulling their hair out as correspondents sent to cover the election repeat a variety of misconceptions or fall into traps of assumption based upon a brief wander around the streets of central Rīga. With that in mind, we've drawn up a brief list of some of the more common booby-traps that might be encountered, in the hope that it might help our international colleagues to sidestep them. 1. There is no outright winner Latvia's multi-party system means voters have plenty of different options from which to choose – at least on paper. Even if one party turns out to do much better than all the others, that does not necessarily mean it has 'won' the election or that it will necessarily even be part of the next government.