The 10th Saeima elections in Latvia took place on Saturday, 2 October 2010. Citizens of Latvia who had the right to vote and were 18 years of age or over on election day were eligible to participate in a Parliamentary elections. Polling stations were opened from 7.00 till 20.00.
Since the Voters’ Register was not used in the Saeima elections, voters could vote at any polling station at their choice. To participate in the Saeima elections a voter needed to have a valid Latvian citizen’s passport where a mark about participation in elections was made.
Voters in Latvia who were not able to attend polling stations for health reasons could apply for voting at their residence from 22 September.
The 10th Saeima elections were organised abroad too. Voters residing abroad could participate in elections by attending any of the polling stations established abroad on the Election Day or by postal voting.
According to proposals made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs there were 24 polling stations abroad, which organised postal voting. Voters could apply to vote by post from 1 May till 10 September 2010.
Persons to whom imprisonment was applied as a preventive punishment or which served time in imprisonment places were eligible to participate in the 10th Saeima elections too. Voting of these persons was organised at their places of imprisonment.
Candidate lists for the 10th Saeima elections were submitted to the Central Election Commission from 14 July till 3 August 2010. The lists of candidates registered for the 10th Saeima elections, parties’ platforms, data of the candidates and statistics are available on "Kandidātu saraksti, programmas" (Candidate Lists, Platforms).
On 19 October 2010 the Central Election Commission has approved the final results of the 10th Saeima elections, according to which five associations of parties have overcame the 5 percent election threshold – “Unity” (“Vienotība”), Association of Political Parties “Harmony Centre” (Politisko partiju apvienība “Saskaņas Centrs”), Union of Greens and Farmers (Zaļo un Zemnieku savienība), National Association “All For Latvia!” - “For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK” (Nacionālā apvienība “Visu Latvijai!” – “Tēvzemei un Brīvībai/LNNK”) и Association of Parties “For Good Latvia” (Partiju apvienība “Par Labu Latviju”).
In the 10th Saeima “Unity” will have 33 deputy seats, Association of Political Parties “Harmony Centre” – 29 deputy seats, Union of Greens and Farmers – 22 deputy seats, National Association “All For Latvia!” - “For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK” – 8 deputy seats and Association of Parties “For Good Latvia” – also 8 deputy seats.
Voter turnout in the 10th Saeima elections was 63.12 percent. There were 30.46 percent of all registered abroad voters participated in the elections. 1.82 percent voters chosen to vote at their place of residence (at home, hospitals, nursing homes, prisons).
In the Saeima elections 967,162 voters were written into voters’ lists. There were 965,538 ballot envelopes received in the election, 944,841 of which contained valid ballot papers. 600,846 ballot papers or 63.59 percent of all the valid ones were marked, i.e. the ones where voters put a + mark opposite the surnames of candidates to which they gave special support or crossed out candidates they did not support.
There were 20,697 ballot envelopes without any valid ballot paper found in ballot boxes. Among the above mentioned ballot envelopes there were 15,586 or 1.61 percent empty ballot envelopes, 4,933 ballot envelopes contained more than one ballot paper and the papers were not identical in respect to their content, 8 ballot envelopes contained ballot papers of another constituency and 170 envelopes contained torn ballot papers. There were 47 ballot envelopes in which voters put more then one identical ballot papers.