Such a high number of parties contesting the ballot was last seen 10 years ago.
"Most are known parties, but there are some who have not been heard of in elections on a regular basis and have not been heard in political work,” said Juris Kokins, chairman of the Rīga municipal election commission.
Voters can see the lists of candidates, pre-election programs and information regarding candidates on the homepage of the Central Election Commission (CVK).
More than two-thirds of the candidates, or 70.3%, are men, and 29.7% are women. The youngest deputy candidate is 18 years old and the oldest is 90 years old. The average age of candidates is 45.6 years. The majority, or 76.7% of the candidates, have higher education.
In the municipal elections of 3 June 2017, 11 lists and 586 candidates were announced in Riga.
In February this year, the Latvian Saeima voted to dismiss the Riga City Council. The extraordinary elections were originally planned for April but following the state of emergency the date was changed several times until it was set to August 29.
The CVK has information about the Rīga city council elections available in English. If you are a European Union citizen with a declared place of residence or you own real estate in the Latvian capital, you should be eligible to vote, too.
