Election officials in Jūrmala and Olaine: low turnout may be linked to voting in Riga constituency

The heads of the election commissions in Jūrmala and Olaine have suggested that the comparatively low voter turnout recorded in their polling stations may be linked to residents' preference for casting ballots for the Riga electoral constituency rather than their own.

The explanation was given to the LETA news agency by representatives of both municipalities' election commissions when asked to comment on the relatively small number of voters who had so far shown up at polling stations in Jūrmala and Olaine.

According to their account, some residents of these municipalities consider themselves to belong to the Riga constituency rather than the area where they are officially registered or actually live, and therefore opt to vote for candidate lists from the Riga constituency. This, they suggest, may be reducing the number of voters participating specifically through the Jūrmala and Olaine polling stations.

Neither the Jūrmala nor the Olaine election commission heads cited specific turnout figures or statistics to support this explanation — it was presented as a possible reason behind the situation observed so far.