The 4.9 Percent List and the Constituency Winner
At a Saeima election, 100 seats were at stake across five constituencies and turnout was 59.4%. The Central Election Commission must allocate seats. Six lists passed the 5% nationwide threshold. One list, Latvijas Nākotne, received 4.9% nationwide but was the largest list in Latgale with 18.2% there. Its lead candidate, A. Bērziņš, received 14,300 preference votes, more than any other candidate in Latgale. A different qualifying list in Latgale has only 11 candidates but, under the Sainte-Laguë method, its constituency result would entitle it to 4 seats. After the first sitting, one deputy elected from a qualifying list leaves her faction and joins another faction. A journalist asks whether the 5% threshold is applied nationally or per constituency and whether Bērziņš can sit in the Saeima.
1. Does Latvijas Nākotne qualify for any seats, and is Bērziņš elected?
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No. The 5% threshold in the Saeima Election Law is applied nationally, not per constituency. A list that receives 4.9% nationwide is below the threshold and is excluded from the allocation of the 100 seats. Its strong result in Latgale and Bērziņš's 14,300 preference votes do not create an exception: preference votes only rank candidates within a list that has already qualified. Votes cast for sub-threshold lists are not transferred to other lists; they simply do not produce seats. The practical consequence is that Latgale's seats are distributed only among the lists that passed 5% nationwide. Bērziņš is therefore not elected, even though he personally outpolled every other candidate in the constituency. The reasoning is that the threshold is a national filter designed to prevent fragmentation, while constituencies are the units for allocating seats among qualifying lists.
2. Within a qualifying list, how are seats assigned among its candidates, and could a lower-placed candidate be elected ahead of the list leader?
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Seats won by a list are assigned to its candidates in order of the preference votes they received, not simply in the order printed on the ballot. A lower-placed candidate who gathered more preference votes than the list leader can therefore be elected ahead of the leader. The list leader has no automatic right to the first seat. The election commission first determines how many seats the list has won in the constituency, then ranks the list's candidates by preference votes and declares elected as many candidates as there are seats. If a candidate declines or resigns, the next candidate in that preference order is elected. This rule matters in the scenario because Bērziņš's large preference vote would have been decisive only if his list had crossed the national threshold; once the list failed, the internal ranking became irrelevant.
3. Does the deputy who leaves her faction lose her Saeima seat?
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No. The Satversme follows the free mandate: a member of the Saeima is not bound by instructions from voters, a party or a faction. The party list is the electoral vehicle that gets the candidate into the Saeima, but once elected the deputy holds the mandate personally. Leaving a faction, joining another faction or becoming an independent does not vacate the seat. The seat can be lost on grounds such as resignation, a court judgment removing civil rights in the cases provided by law, or other statutory incompatibilities, but not simply because the deputy changes faction. The reasoning is that the free mandate protects the deputy's independence in decision-making; otherwise factions could recall members and control every vote.