Candidate lists submitted for Latvia's 15th Saeima elections

Latvia's Central Election Commission has compiled data showing that 1434 candidates are vying for seats in the 15th Saeima, with an average of 14.3 candidates competing for each of the 100 parliamentary seats. This marks a decrease in competition compared to the previous election.

The highest concentration of candidates per seat is observed in the Zemgale electoral district, where approximately 15.9 candidates are running for one seat, closely followed by Kurzeme with 15.7 candidates per seat. Latgale has 15 candidates per seat, Riga has 13.9, and Vidzeme has 13.3.

Riga's electoral district has the largest number of candidates overall, with 527 individuals seeking the 38 available seats. Vidzeme follows with 347 candidates for 26 seats, Zemgale with 207 for 13 seats, Latgale with 180 for 12 seats, and Kurzeme with 173 for 11 seats. Despite the high number of candidates, Riga does not have the highest competition ratio relative to the number of seats.

In comparison to the 14th Saeima elections, the current race sees fewer participants. The previous election featured 19 candidate lists with 1832 candidates, whereas the 15th Saeima has 14 lists and 1434 candidates. This represents a drop of five lists and 398 candidates, or about a 22% decrease in the number of candidates. The competition ratio has fallen from 18.3 candidates per seat to 14.3.

Seven political forces, the National Alliance, "Latvia First," "The Progressives," "New Unity," "United List," the Union of Greens and Farmers, and "Sovereign Power/New Latvians Union", have nominated the maximum of 125 candidates across all five electoral districts. Other parties have shorter lists. For instance, "Harmony Centre" has 105 candidates, the New Conservative Party has 85, "For Latvia's Development" has 84, "We Change the Rules" has 77, "Rising Sun for Latvia" has 75, "Gobzem's List" has 73, and "For Stability!" has 60.

Of the total candidates, 488, or 34%, are women, while 946, or 66%, are men. This is a slight decrease from the 14th Saeima elections, where women constituted 36.3% of candidates. Latgale currently has the highest proportion of female candidates at 39.4%, while Vidzeme has the lowest at 31.1%. In Riga, women make up 34.5% of candidates, Kurzeme 34.1%, and Zemgale 32.9%. Educational data indicates that 1129 candidates (78.7%) have higher education, 281 (19.6%) have secondary education, and 24 (1.7%) have basic education.