Latvians vote overwhelming to force snap election
Provisional data from the central electoral commission showed that the "Yes" camp won an unassailable 94.76 percent of the vote, and the "No" side only 5.02 percent.
Turnout topped 44 percent, the figures showed.
Pre-referendum polls had forecast a "Yes" vote of over 90 percent in this European Union nation of 2.2 million.
The display of people power means the current 100-member parliament, elected last October, will be dissolved and a fresh general election scheduled, most likely on September 17.
Just days before his term was due to end, then president Valdis Zatlers on May 28 deployed a presidential power never previously used to call a dissolution referendum.
In a hard-hitting speech at the time, he said the people needed to break the clout of powerful individuals known as "oligarchs", who straddle the worlds of business and politics.
He hammered home the message on the eve of the referendum, saying: "I got fed up of living in a country ruled by lies, cynicism and greed."
"I have opened the door to change. Now it is up to you to step through it and feel that you can take control of your own destiny," he added.
In office since 2007, Zatlers had repeatedly demanded that parliament do something to restore long-lost public faith in the former Soviet-ruled republic's lawmakers.
Arnis Kaktins, head of pollsters SKDS, underlined the deep discontent people feel in Latvia.
"Our polls over quite a long period of time have shown distrust and dissatisfaction with our parliament regardless of the oligarch factor," he told AFP.
Political analyst Ivars Ijabs echoed that: "Basically, the Latvian people are saying to Zatlers, 'Thank you for freeing us from our own parliament!'"
Zatlers acted after parliament refused to lift the immunity of "oligarch" lawmaker Ainars Slesers, hampering an anti-corruption probe. Slesers is a former transport minister, the leader of a pro-business opposition party and one of the Baltic state's richest men.
"Everyone's had it up to here," Riga "Yes" voter Inese, 51, told AFP, indicating the top of her head. She declined to give her last name.
After Zatlers called the referendum, angry lawmakers hit back by foiling his bid for a second four-year mandate.
Latvia's head of state is elected by parliament, so on June 2, they axed him in favour of last-minute rival Andris Berzins, an ex-banker and lawmaker for the Greens and Farmers Alliance.
Berzins kept his vote to himself Saturday. But Green and Farmers Alliance kingpin Aivars Lembergs -- the wealthy mayor of oil port Ventspils, who has also faced graft probes -- said he would vote "No".
The alliance is part of Latvia's two-party government but mustered opposition support for Berzins on June 2.
The other part of the ruling coalition, the Unity bloc of centre-right Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis, backed Zatlers.
The ex-president is a former physician who won the largely ceremonial, non-partisan post of head of state in 2007 as a compromise candidate. Now he has created his own Zatlers Reform Party.
"My purpose is not to create a position for myself, but to bring in a new kind of politics," he said Saturday.
Polls indicate his party could do well in the snap elections, as would the left-leaning opposition Harmony Centre.
The latter draws votes from the large Russian-speaking minority, whose parties have not been in power since Latvia's regained independence in 1991 after five decades under Moscow.
Analysts say renewed political wrangling should not have a major economic impact in Latvia, which remains locked in an austerity drive in the wake of the financial crisis and recession.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011