After telling journalists that the election had generally run smoothly, Cimdars revealed the results, which showed the opposition Harmony party topping the poll by a narrow margin.
Harmony secured 23.13% of the vote ahead of Unity (21.76%), Greens and Farmers Union (19.62%), National Alliance (16.57%), Latvia From the Heart (6.88%) and the Regional Alliance (6.55%).
Owing to the complex formulas used to work out the distribution of seats, the Regional Alliance actually won an extra seat from Latvia From the Heart - ironically as a result of its stronger support in Riga.
The seats in the 100-member parliament will be distributed in the following manner: Harmony 24 seats; Unity 23; Greens and Farmers 21; National Alliance 17; Regional Alliance 8; Latvia From The Heart 7.
No other parties crossed the 5% threshold necessary to win seats in Saeima.
The result means the current three-party ruling coalition would control 61 seats in Saeima with the possibility that the Regional Alliance might be brought into the coalition to give a powerful 69 seat bloc.
Turnout, at 58.8%, was the lowest ever recorded in a Latvian parliamentary election.
