LATVIAN PUBLIC CAN NOW INITIATE DISMISSAL OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L RIGA 000241 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/04/2019 TAGS: PGOV KCOR KJUS LG SUBJECT: LATVIAN PUBLIC CAN NOW INITIATE DISMISSAL OF PARLIAMENT REF: A. RIGA 33 B. 08 RIGA 151 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires a.i. Tamir Waser for reason 1.4(b) ¶1. (U) Summary: On April 29 President Zatlers promulgated the constitutional amendments allowing the Latvian people to initiate dissolution of the Parliament (Saeima). A Latvian labor union initiated the drive for the amendments in October 2007, and passage of such a law was the last of Zatlers's January 2009 ultimatum requests to the Parliament to be fulfilled. (ref a) Reactions from government members and the press are mostly positive, stating that the law puts the possibility of dismissing Saeima in the people's hands, and that this can only encourage politicians' responsiveness to their voters. End Summary. ¶2. (U) On April 29 President Zatlers promulgated the constitutional amendments which allow the Latvian people to initiate dissolution of the Saeima. Until this time, the President alone had the power to do this. Under the new provisions, 10,000 people must file a petition to dissolve Saeima. Then, the central election commission must collect signatures from the electorate to initiate the referendum. At the vote, two-thirds of the number of voters from the last general election must participate. If a simple majority of those voting support dissolution the Saeima is dissolved and new elections must be held at least one month and no more than two months later. The amendments come with many limitations; they will not take effect until after the 10th Saeima elections next year (practically this mean they could only be used after October 2011),the public cannot initiate dissolution of a parliament within its first or last years of operation, during the last six months of a president's term and no sooner than six months after a previous dismissal vote. ¶3. (U) The Free Trade Union Confederation of Latvia started the campaign demanding the amendments in October 2007. They were overwhelmingly supported but an August 2008 referendum to adopt them failed due to lack of participation. (ref b) However, bending to the President's pressure, Saeima tasked a workgroup to develop the amendments. The Saeima drafting and review process dragged until January 2009, when President Zatlers made passing them one of his ultimatum requests to Saeima, threatening to dismiss Saeima himself if they were not met by March 31. ¶4. (C) Comment: Like many of the changes taking place in Latvia now, the approval of these amendments was a long time coming and welcome. According to a Constitutional Court official, the fact that these amendments exist will force politicians to be more willing to listen to voters. The seemingly large number of voters required to initiate dismissal was a detail negotiated among parties, intended to encourage high support for the amendments. There has been very little opposition to amendments, and only a few are concerned about the Saeima's ability to function given the high hurdles at each stage of the process. The outcome is the ability for Latvians to take greater control of their government and to make the public protest chant "dismiss Saeima" more than just an idle threat. End Comment. WASER