The prime ministerial candidate of For Development/For! is MEP Artis Pabriks. He'll be the first ticket (appearing foremost on the party's election ballot) in Vidzeme. Former Economics Minister Daniels Pavļuts will be the first ticket in the Rīga electoral region; Juris Pūce in Latgale; former Welfare Minister Ilze Viņķele in Zemgale; and Rīga councilor Mārtiņš Bondars in Latgale.
The party's program, which seems to put it somewhere left of center on the political spectrum, includes measures like raising the minimum wage; increasing R&D and cultural funding; as well as giving citizenship to all minors who are children of Latvia's "non-citizens"; increasing pensions; and taking measures to boost Latvia's competitiveness.
A July poll by SKDS carried out for LTV put support for the party at 4.4% but with many voters undecided. It could be a close call whether the party makes it past the 5% threshold required to make it into the Saeima.
New Unity
The Unity party has likewise submitted its candidate list on August 2. It renamed itself the New Unity as part of a re-branding effort after petty infighting saw it lose control over the government. A number of its most visible members left the party afterward, including aforementioned Artis Pabriks.
The New Unity's candidates include current MPs and ministers, including Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs, Economics Minister Arvils Ašeradens and others.
The July poll put support for the New Unity at just 2.9%, though this figure increased slightly from June's 2.7%. Its candidate for Prime Minister is MEP Krišjānis Kariņš, while the ticket leaders are Rinkēvičs, Ašeradens, Welfare Minister Jānis Reirs, and MPs Inese Lībiņa-Egnere and Aldis Adamovičs.
Other parties which have submitted their electoral lists include the tiny Rīcības partija (Action Party), which hasn't appeared in polls so far; as well as the Latvian Regional Alliance, which won eight seats in the previous election.
The Regional Alliance has seen its support dwindle in polls. Its most prominent members - Mārtiņš Bondars and Artuss Kaimiņš - have both left the party at one point or another.
The 13th Saeima election takes place October 6.
