Saeima

Not to be confused with Seimas.

Saeima
14th Saeima
Type
Type	Unicameral
History
Founded	7 November 1922 (1922-11-07)
Disbanded	1934–1940 1940–1991
Preceded by	Constitutional Assembly of Latvia
Leadership
Speaker	Daiga Mieriņa, Union of Greens and Farmers since 20 September 2023
Structure
Seats	100
Political groups	Government (50)   JV (25)   ZZS (16)   P (9) Confidence and supply (3)   Ind. (3) Opposition (47)   AS (14)   NA (12)   ST! (10)   LPV (8)   Ind. (3)
Committees	16 Foreign Affairs Budget and Finance (Taxation) Legal Affairs Human Rights and Public Affairs Education, Culture and Science Defence, Internal Affairs and Corruption Prevention Public Administration and Local Government Economic, Agricultural, Environmental and Regional Policy Social and Employment Matters Mandate, Ethics and Submissions Parliamentary Inquiry Public Expenditure and Audit National Security Citizenship, Migration and Social Cohesion European Affairs Sustainable Development
Length of term	4 years
Elections
Voting system	Open list proportional representation with a 5% electoral threshold
First election	7 and 8 October 1922
Last election	1 October 2022
Next election	By 3 October 2026
Meeting place
House of the Livonian Noble Corporation, Riga
Website
www.saeima.lv

The Saeima (Latvian pronunciation: [ˈsai.ma]) is the parliament of the Republic of Latvia. It is a unicameral parliament consisting of 100 members who are elected by proportional representation, with seats allocated to political parties which gain at least 5% of the popular vote. Elections are scheduled to be held once every four years, normally on the first Saturday of October. The most recent elections were held in October 2022.

The President of Latvia can dismiss the Saeima and request early elections. The procedure for dismissing it involves substantial political risk to the president, including a risk of loss of office. On 28 May 2011 president Valdis Zatlers decided to initiate the dissolution of the Saeima, which was approved in a referendum, and the Saeima was dissolved on 23 July 2011.

The current Speaker of the Saeima is Daiga Mieriņa of the Union of Greens and Farmers party. The basic document that regulates the proceedings of the parliament is the Rules of Order of Saeima (Saeimas kārtības rullis, also Rules of Procedure), adopted 23 March 1923 with amendments in 1929 and 1994.

History and etymology

The Saeima traces its origins to the Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland, which led to the creation of the Sejm (Seimas) of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later to the creation of the Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Polish Livonia, a part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, was exposed to the Polish mode of administration and introduced to the Sejm-system. The Warsaw Sejm of 1677 settled the case of remaining part of Polish Livonia or Latgale (Polish: Inflanty), naming it a voivodeship and a duchy, with the right to name three senators: the Bishop, the Voivode and the Castellan of Inflanty (...) Local sejmiks took place at Daugavpils, while starostas resided at Daugavpils, Ludza, Rēzekne and Viļaka. The voivodeship had six deputies to the Sejm, but only two of them came from Inflanty, the other four were symbolically named by the king, to remember the lost part of Livonia (Swedish Livonia). However, the rest of Latvia belonged to the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, which was governed by the Dukes and the Landtag of Courland.

The word sejm derives from the verb "sjąć się" meaning "to get together", with similar words in some other Slavic languages, of proto-Slavic origin *sъjęti < *sъjemti Sejm, then, as a noun meant "a gathering, a meeting, a council."

Representatives of the 1st Saeima of the Republic of Latvia in 1922

In the 19th century, as the concept of nations began to emerge, Juris Alunāns, a member of a Latvian nationalist group called the Young Latvians, claimed ownership to the word "saeims". Despite the similar sound, similar semantic structure and clear historical connotations, he claimed that it was a purely Latvian word that he had invented. As mentioned earlier, the word bears a similar meaning: "a gathering, a meeting, a council". He claimed that the word he constructed stemmed from the archaic Latvian word eima instead, meaning "to go" (derived from the PIE *ei "to go" and also a cognate with the Ancient Greek eimi, Gaulish eimu, among others).

He could not explain, however, how the s- prefix got added to the word, and what sense this addition made within the limits of the Latvian language. Nevertheless, according to Alunāns, the word is purely Latvian and completely independent of the aforementioned historical context. However, the prefix sa- to a verb in modern Latvian language usually stands for a complete action and the word "Saeima" can stand for a meaning "let's gather together completely".

In the pre-war Latvia, the Saeima was elected for three-year terms. The 1st Saeima met from 7 November 1922 to 2 November 1925, the 2nd from 3 November 1925 to 5 November 1928, the 3rd from 6 November 1928 to 2 November 1931, and the 4th from 3 November 1931 to 15 May 1934 (date of the Latvian coup d'état).

Elections

The Saeima is an entirely elected body. All Latvian citizens (including naturalized citizens) over the age of 18 are eligible to vote. Candidates must be qualified to vote, but must also be over 21, must not be former employees of the USSR and Latvian SSR State security services, intelligence or counter-intelligence services or any other foreign affiliated organizations, must not have been convicted of a criminal offence or deemed to be of diminished mental capacity.

The term of the Saeima is four years. An election may be called early, but doing so is more complicated than in other parliamentary democracies. If the President proposes that the Saeima be dissolved, a national referendum must be held to confirm the dissolution. If the dissolution is not approved, the President is removed from office. If one-tenth of the electorate signs a petition demanding a dissolution, a referendum can be held without the involvement of the President.

There are five constituencies, Kurzeme (12 deputies), Latgale (14), Riga (35), Vidzeme (25), and Zemgale (14). Overseas votes are counted for the Riga constituency.

Seats are distributed in each constituency by open list proportional representation among the parties that overcome a 5% national election threshold using an unmodified version of the Webster/Sainte-Laguë method.

Voters cast a vote for a party list, which consists of the candidates that the party has submitted in that constituency. Although a specific ordering is listed for each candidate, which is determined by the party, this has no effect on the actual chances of each candidate. Instead, voters cast "specific votes" for candidates. These votes can be either positive votes or negative votes. The number of votes for each candidate is determined by taking the number of votes for the respective list, and adding it to the candidate's positive votes, before subtracting the number of negative votes for that candidate. The candidates with the highest number of votes fill the party's seats. A positive vote is indicated by drawing a plus sign (+) next to the candidate's name on the ballot paper. A negative vote is indicated by crossing out the candidate's name. Voters may only cast specific votes for the candidates on the list that they voted for.

It is uncommon for any party to achieve more than 30% of the vote in an election. The record is 32.4% for the Latvian Way party in the 1993 election. This means that a coalition has always been necessary.

If a seat falls vacant during a term of the Saeima, it is filled by the next candidate on the appropriate list.

The Communist Party of Latvia is the only political party that is banned.

Most recent election

Main article: 2022 Latvian parliamentary election

Deputies are elected from five constituencies, based on the cultural regions of Latvia.

Summary of the 1 October 2022 Latvian Saeima election results

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	New Unity (JV)	173,425	18.97	26	+18
	Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS)	113,676	12.44	16	+5
	United List (AS)	100,631	11.01	15	New
	National Alliance (NA)	84,939	9.29	13	0
	For Stability! (S!)	62,168	6.80	11	New
	Latvia First (LPV)	57,033	6.24	9	New
	The Progressives (PRO)	56,327	6.16	10	+10
	Development/For! (AP!)	45,452	4.97	0	–13
	Harmony (S)	43,943	4.81	0	–23
	For Each and Every One (KuK)	33,578	3.67	0	New
	Latvian Russian Union (LKS)	33,203	3.63	0	0
	Sovereign Power (SV)	29,603	3.24	0	New
	The Conservatives (K)	28,270	3.09	0	–16
	Republic (R)	16,088	1.76	0	New
	Force of People's Power (TVS)	10,350	1.13	0	New
	People's Servants for Latvia (TKL)	9,176	1.00	0	0
	Union for Latvia (AL)	2,985	0.33	0	–16
	United for Latvia (VL)	1,413	0.15	0	New
	Progressive Christian Party (KPP)	1,379	0.15	0	New
	Blank votes	10,383	1.14	–	–
Total		914,022	100.00	100	0
Valid votes		903,511	99.70
Invalid/blank votes		2,714	0.30
Total votes		906,225	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		1,542,407	58.75
Source: CVK

Structure of former legislatures

5th Saeima

36	15	13	12	7	6	6	5
Latvian Way	LNNK	Harmony	LZS	Equal Rights	For Fatherland and Freedom	KDS	Democratic Centre

6th Saeima

18	17	16	14	8	8	8	6	5
Saimnieks	Latvian Way	People's movement "For Latvia"	For Fatherland and Freedom	LVP	LZS/KDS	LNNK/LZP	Harmony	LSP

7th Saeima

24	21	17	16	14	8
TP	Latvian Way	For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK	Harmony	LSDSP	JP

8th Saeima

26	25	20	12	10	7
JL	PCTVL	TP	ZZS	LPP	For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK

9th Saeima

23	18	18	17	10	8	6
TP	ZZS	JL	Harmony	LPP/LC	For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK	PCTVL

10th Saeima

33	29	22	8	8
Unity	Harmony	ZZS	NA	(AŠ)²

11th Saeima

31	22	20	14	13
Harmony	Reform	Unity	NA	ZZS

12th Saeima

24	23	21	17	8	7
Harmony	Unity	ZZS	NA	LRA	NSL

13th Saeima

23	16	16	13	13	11	8
Harmony	KPV	JKP	AP!	NA	ZZS	JV

14th Saeima

26	16	15	13	11	10	9
JV	ZZS	AS	NA	ST!	PRO	LPV

See also

• Category:Deputies of the Saeima
• Deputies of the Saeima
• List of Deputy Speakers of the Saeima
• People's Council of Latvia – provisional parliament from 1918–1920
• Constitutional Assembly of Latvia – consented to the Satversme in 1922

External links

• Latvijas Republikas Saeima
• Central Election Commission of Latvia