RIGA, June 1 (RIA Novosti) – Thousands of Latvian non-citizens took part in alternative parliamentary polls on Saturday, the Non-citizen Congress movement has said.
The polls are held on the same day as municipal elections in the country. All Latvian citizens can take part in the voting, to last until June 11, but only non-citizens can be elected to the alternative parliament.
“The turnout in the parliamentary elections for the 'non-represented' is high, thousands of ballots are being counted,” said a spokesman for the Congress, a movement defending the rights of minorities, that was founded in March.
Over 300,000 of Latvia's 2 million population are considered non-citizens, who are not allowed to vote in elections and referendums. Most these non-citizens are Russian speakers. Latvia maintains that it was illegally incorporated into the USSR in 1940 and then occupied by the Soviets until 1991, during which time hundreds of thousands of Russians immigrated into the republic.
