Andris Berzins wins Latvia's presidential ballot

PanARMENIAN.Net - A banker-turned-politician won Latvia's presidential ballot Thursday, June 2 defeating the incumbent president who derailed his re-election bid at the last minute with a move to dissolve Parliament.

Challenger Andris Berzins, 66, triumphed with a simple majority of 53 votes in the second round of voting in the 100-seat assembly. The first round of voting earlier Thursday failed to produce a winner.

Berzins is currently a lawmaker for the Greens and Farmers Union, one of the parties in the coalition government. He is a multi-millionaire former bank president with numerous land holdings around the country and extensive political experience.

Zatlers, 56, had been widely expected to win the vote until he accused lawmakers on Saturday of being soft on corruption and called a referendum on whether to dissolve Parliament.

Neither candidate won a majority in the first round of voting. In the second round, 53 lawmakers voted for Berzins and 44 voted against him. Forty-one voted in favor of Zatlers and 56 against.

Two of the 99 lawmakers who took part in the second round cast invalid ballots. Zatlers' term ends on July 7, after which Berzins will become the fourth president of Latvia since it regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Associated Press reported.