MUNICIPAL ELECTION IN LATVIA








RIGA, March 11, 2001. /From RIA Novosti correspondent Anatoly Baranovsky/. Municipal elections to 552 municipal, provincial and district councils are being held today in Latvia.


	Latvia's 938 polling stations admitted the first voters at 7:00 a.m. local time. The Central Electoral Commission reports that there is a high-level turnout, and the general atmosphere is calm.


	Only natives have the right to vote, unlike 540,000 of the republic's residents of non-Latvian origin, who make up almost 25% of the republic's population. On the eve of the election, the Latvian parliament once again turned down the left-wing oppositionists' proposal to grant the non-Latvians the right to participate in local elections.