Doc. 10481 revised

31 March 2005

Municipal elections in Latvia on 12 March 2005

Motion for a resolution

presented by Mr McNamara and others

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only the members who have signed it

Municipal elections were held in Latvia on 12 March 2005. According to the preliminary returns of the Central Election Commission of the Republic 52,85 % of Latvian citizens, or 749,709 people out of 1,418,445 people with voting rights, took part in the elections.

      22 % of the Latvian population, i.e. more than 450,000 people out of the 2.3 million population of Latvia, are not citizens of the Republic and, in accordance with the Latvian legislation, do not enjoy any voting rights. This primarily refers to the representatives of the national minorities that have been residing in Latvia for dozens of years.

      At the same time, any citizen of a member state of the European Union who has permanently resided in Latvia for more than six months has a right to take part in local elections.

      Thus, municipal elections of 12 March 2005 were held without taking into consideration the recommendations of the following international organizations, particularly:

      - the UNO – Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD/C/63/CO/8, 22 August 2003);

      - the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe – Recommendation 799 (1977) on the political rights and position of aliens and Recommendation 1500 (2001) Participation of immigrants and foreign residents in political life in the Council of Europe member states;

      - Council of Europe – Commissioner on Human Rights report on a visit to Latvia in October 5-8, 2003 – CommDH(2004)E; Second report on Latvia of the European Commission against racism and intolerance – CRI (2002) 21;

      -European Parliament – Report 1 5-0111/2004 on the comprehensive monitoring report of the European Commission on the state of preparedness for EU membership of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia;

      - the OSCE – final report of the joint PACE and OSCE/ODHIR Election observation mission on the 5 October 2002 election to the Saeima of the Republic of Latvia.

      As a result of Latvia's non-fulfillment of the above recommendations, the returns of the 12 March 2005 municipal election undoubtedly call for a thorough analysis by the PACE in respect to their correspondence to real political preferences of residents, primarily of big municipal entities of Latvia

Signed (see overleaf)

Signed 1:

McNAMARA, Kevin, United Kingdom, SOC

ATEŞ, Abdülkadir, Turkey, SOC

BINDIG, Rudolf, Germany, SOC

CHERNYSHENKO, Igor, Russia, EDG

CHRISTODOULIDES, Doros, Cyprus, UEL

de PUIG, Lluís Maria, Spain, SOC

EINARSSON, Mats, Sweden, UEL

ELO, Mikko, Finland, SOC

FEDOROV, Valeriy, Russia, EDG

FOMENKO, Alexander, Russia, UEL

GARDETTO, Jean-Charles, Monaco, EPP/CD

GROSS, Andreas, Switzerland, SOC

HANCOCK, Michael, United Kingdom, LDR

KOSACHEV, Konstantin, Russia, EDG

KOVALEV, Yuri, Russia, EDG

MARGELOV, Mikhail, Russia, EDG

PAPADIMITRIOU, Elsa, Greece, EPP/CD

RAKHANSKY, Anatoliy, Ukraine, UEL

VERMOT-MANGOLD, Ruth-Gaby, Switzerland, SOC

VIS, Rudolf, United Kingdom, SOC

1        SOC: Socialist Group

      EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party

      LDR : Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group

      EDG: European Democratic Group

      UEL: Group of the Unified European Left

      NR: not registered in a group