Any Latvian citizen abroad who wants an absentee ballot to vote in the Oct. 2 parliamentary election has two weeks left to submit their application and passport to one of 24 embassies or consular offices around the world.

Application materials must be received by Sept. 10, whether in person or by mail, according to the Central Election Commission in Rīga. In case of mail submissions, passports will be mailed back to applicants.

The one-page application form, in Latvian, may download from the election commission’s website as either a Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF file.

Along with the application form, one’s Latvian passport must be submitted to the embassy or consular office. Once both are received, according to the election commission, the voter will be registered and the voter’s passport will be stamped to indicate particpation in the election. The voter also will receive a document certifying their registration.

Ballots, which include the candidate lists for all 13 political parties running in the election, will be sent to absentee voters between Sept. 10-17. Voters must pick just one list for which to vote, although they may promote or demote specific candidates on the list.

Voters abroad will cast ballots for candidates in the Rīga election district. The Rīga district is one of five election districts in Latvia, the other four being Kurzeme, Latgale, Vidzeme and Zemgale.

The completed absentee ballot must be returned to the local election commission that provided the ballot. Absentee ballots must be received by the local election commission by 8 p.m. Oct. 2 local time.

A total of 24 embassies and consular offices are accepting requests for absentee ballots. A list of addresses and hours is available from the Central Election Commission’s website, www.cvk.lv.

Voters abroad also will be able to vote in person at one of 64 polling stations that will operate outside of Latvia on Oct. 2.

More than 1,200 citizens abroad applied for new or renewed their Latvian passports in a project that brought mobile processing stations to the United States, Canada and Australia during July and early August, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced in Rīga.

The project was coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior’s Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (Pilsonsības un migrācijas lietu pārvalde, or PMLP). It was designed to serve Latvian citizens abroad in advance of the Oct. 2 parliamentary election, especially those who live a great distance from Latvian embassies.

Although the effort did not serve the 1,800 citizens the ministries had expected, the project brought in LVL 67,000 in state and consular fees.

In all, 1,247 citizens were processed by representatives using the mobile passport stations. Of those, 709 were in the U.S., 346 in Australia and 192 in Canada.

Three pairs of representatives, with one from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and one from the PMLP, visited the three countries.

They brought with them a processing station that allowed the representatives to take passport photographs and to record fingerprints. In the U.S., the processing station was brought Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York and Seattle. In Canada, the representatives visited Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver. Australian cities visited were Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

A 17-year-old javelin athlete from Smiltene, Latvia, has won a bronze medal in the the 2010 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) underway in Singapore.

Intars Išējevs took third place overall in the Aug. 22 final of the event, held at Singapore’s Bishan Stadium, according to results posted on the official website of the Youth Olympic Games, www.singapore2010.sg.

His farthest throw, which was also a personal best, was 74.23 meters.

The gold medal in the javelin event went to Braian Toledo of Argentina, whose best throw was 81.78 meters, while the silver medal went to Devin Bogert of the U.S., who threw for 76.88 meters.

This summer’s Youth Olympic Games are the first ever. The International Olympic Committee in 2007 authorized the games “to inspire young people around the world to participate in sport and adopt and live by the Olympic values,” according to www.singapore2010.sg. The YOG are for athletes ages 14-18. An estimated 3,600 athletes from around the world are participating in the Singapore games, which began Aug. 14 and conclude Aug. 26.

Išējevs is one of 11 Latvian athletes participating in the games. Besides the javelin event, Latvian athletes are competing in cycling, the modern pentathlon, rowing, sailing, swimming and weightlifting.

Elza Gulbe, 17, placed fourth overall in junior women’s single sculls rowing. The Aug. 18 final took place in the Marina Reservoir. Gulbe finished the 1,000-meter course in a time of 3:45.60. The gold medal in the event went to Judith Sievers of Germany, who finished with a time of 3:44.21.

Sindija Roga, 16, finished 19th overall in the girls’ combined running and shooting event, part of the modern pentathlon. The finals of the event took place Aug. 21 at the Singapore Sports School.

Artjoms Žerebkovs, 16, placed fourth overall in the 56-kilogram weightlifting event, which took place Aug. 15 in the Toa Payoh Sports Hall. He scored 122 in the snatch and 128 in the clean and jerk, for a total score of 226.

Latvian cyclists finished 18th overall in the combined mixed team event.

According to Singapore YOG rules, each national cycling team has three men and one woman. The Latvian team consisted of 18-year-old men Aleksandrs Kurbatskis, Kristers Taims and Andris Vosekalns, as well as 17-year-old woman Lija Laizāne. The combined event includes seven competitions. One man from each team must compete in the mountain bike, time trial and BMX races, while the woman competes in all three. Finally, all three men compete in the mass-start road race.

Vosekalns had the best result of the Latvian men in the road race, finishing 48th—on foot—after a tire on his bicycle came off, according to a report posted on the Latvian Olympic Commitee’s website, olimpiade.lv