(1) The members of the Saeima elected in constituencies shall be determined by the Central Election Commission. The lists of candidates bearing the same name which have received less than five per cent of the total number of votes cast in the entire Latvia, regardless of the number of constituencies for which these lists of candidates have been nominated, shall be excluded from the distribution of seats in the Saeima. The number of valid ballot envelopes shall be deemed to be the total number of votes cast (the total number of voters participating in the election).

(2) In order to distribute the number of seats in the Saeima between the other lists of candidates nominated in the constituency, the following procedures shall be applied:

1) the number of valid ballot papers cast for each list of candidates shall be determined in each constituency;

2) the number of ballot papers cast for each list of candidates shall be then sequentially divided by 1, 3, 5, 7 and so on until the number of divisions is the same as the number of candidates nominated in the list of candidates;

3) all the acquired divisions regarding all the lists of candidates of one constituency shall be numbered in common descending order;

4) seats of the members of the Saeima shall sequentially be received by those lists of candidates of the constituency which conform to the largest divisions. If the division the sequence number of which is equal to the number of the members of the Saeima to be elected from the constituency is equal to one or several subsequent divisions, a seat of the member of the Saeima shall be received by the list of candidates which has acquired more votes. If such lists of candidates have been registered only in one constituency, a seat of the member of the Saeima shall be received by the list of candidates that has been registered first.

[26 March 1998; 27 May 1998]