The 1999 presidential elections in

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

took place on June 17, 1999. After no candidate collected the required number of votes in several ballots, a break was announced at the election session, during which

Raimonds Pauls Ojārs Raimonds Pauls (born 12 January 1936 in Iļģuciems, Riga, Latvia) is a Latvian composer and piano player who is well known in Latvia, Russia, post-Soviet countries and worldwide. He was the Minister of Culture of Latvia from 1988 to 199 ...

, who had received the most support at the time, withdrew his candidacy. After the break, the sitting was resumed with new candidates and

Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga (born 1 December 1937) is a Latvian politician who served as the sixth President of Latvia from 1999 to 2007. She is the first woman to hold the post. She was elected President of Latvia in 1999 and re-elected for the seco ...

was elected the 6th

President of Latvia The president of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Valsts prezidents ) is head of state and commander-in-chief of the Latvian National Armed Forces, National Armed Forces of the Latvia, Republic of Latvia. The term of office is four years. Before 1999, it w ...

Candidates

The initial list of candidates included five candidates:

Anatolijs Gorbunovs Anatolijs Gorbunovs, also known as Anatoly Valeryanovich Gorbunov ( rus, Анато́лий Валериа́нович Горбуно́в, born 10 February 1942, in Pilda parish, Ludza municipality, Latvia), is a Latvian politician who served a ...

, Arnis Kalniņš,

Vaira Paegle Vaira Paegle (July 6, 1942 – June 14, 2019) was a Latvian politician. She was a Deputy of the Saeima and a member of the People's Party, later of the Civic Union. Biography Paegle was born in Riga, Latvia during the Nazi occupation. In 19 ...

, Jānis Priedkalns and

was nominated as a candidate after failing to elect a new president in the first five rounds of voting.

Election process and results

The presidential election took place on June 17 and required 6 rounds of voting to elect a new president. In the first round of voting,

and

won the largest number of votes, both at 24. As no candidate received at least 51 votes, all the same candidates took part in the second ballot. The results of the second round exactly coincided with the results of the first round: 24 votes for Pauls, 24 for Paegle, 21 for

, 17 for Jānis Priedkalns, and 14 for Arnis Kalniņš. In the third round, Kalniņš, as the owner of the smallest number of votes, no longer participated in the elections in the second round. In the third round, the largest number of votes was won by Pauls with 32 votes. Paegle received 25, Gorbunov received 23, and Priedkalns received 17. As no candidate still had the required number of votes, the 4th round of voting took place, in which Priedkalns no longer participated. A large number of deputies did not take part in the vote at all, and as a result , Paegle won the largest number of votes with 24. Pauls received 23 and Gorbunovs received 22. Paegle and Pauls took part in the fifth round of voting. Paegle won 24 votes while Pauls won 33. Consequently, after none of the candidates had been elected by ballot, a new round of elections had to take place with the same or different candidates. After the adjournment of the Saeima sitting, Pauls announced that he had decided to withdraw his candidacy. Consequently, it was necessary to start the vote again, either with the old candidates or with the nominated new ones. The sitting resumed at 9 p.m. with new candidates

Ingrīda Ūdre Ingrīda Latimira, formerly Ingrīda Ūdre, (born 14 November 1958) is a Latvian politician who belongs to the Latvian Farmers' Union political party. Ūdre is a former professional basketball player who worked as an accountant after the end of h ...

and

Valdis Birkavs Valdis Birkavs (born July 28, 1942) is a Latvian politician. He was born in Riga. Birkavs attended the University of Latvia, where he studied philosophy, sociology, law, psychology and mathematical logic. He was first elected to the Latvian pa ...

. The results of the first vote for these candidates were as follows: Ūdre received 12 votes, Valdis Birkavs received 21 votes, and Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga received 50 votes. A total of 84 ballot papers were received, but the vote of one of them caused confusion. Namely, it was not clear whether it should be considered a vote against all candidates or a vote for Vike-Freiberga. As the tellers could not agree on which of these options to accept, it was decided to repeat the vote as a repeat of the first ballot and not as a second ballot. In the repeat vote, Vike-Freiberga received 53 votes and was elected

References

{{Latvian presidential elections Presidential elections in Latvia

1999 in Latvia