To help prepare for the next Saeima election in 2010, the Latvian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and the American Latvian Association have organized a survey of Latvian citizens in the United States.

Results of the survey, according to the embassy and the ALA, will be used to help determine the number and location of polling stations in the United States. Polling stations are set up by Latvia’s Central Election Commission on the advice of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The number of Latvians citizens voting in the United States has decreased with each parliamentary election. During the last election in 2006, a total of 1,479 citizens in United States cast ballots. Four years earlier, in the 2002 election, a total of 1,698 ballots were cast, while the 1998 election saw 2,928 votes.

During the 2006 election, polling stations in the United States were set up in Boston; Chicago; Cleveland, Ohio; Los Angeles; Minneapolis, Minn.; New York; St. Petersburg, Fla.; Seattle, Wash., and Washington, D.C.

Other countries with large exile generation populations also have seen declines in voting. However, in countries such as Ireland and the United Kingdom, where a surge in new immigrants from Latvia has been recorded, the number of voters has jumped.

The 11-question, three-page Latvian-language survey asks about potential voters’ motivation to cast ballots in the next election as well as the best way to publicize information about the election. Survey results also will be used to understand what changes might be necessary in the election process.

Completed surveys should be returned by Oct. 31 to the embassy by e-mail to embassy.usa@mfa.gov.lv, by fax to +1 (202) 328-2860, or by postal mail to Embassy of Latvia, 2306 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., Washington, DC 20008.

Latvia’s Constitutional Court has agreed to hear a case that could settle a lawsuit filed by a family in Germany and determine the future of dual citizenship for thousands of Latvians in the diaspora.

The court on Sept. 23 decided to initiate the case challenging the constitutionality of parts of Latvia’s citizenship law, according to spokeswoman Līna Kovalevska. Under the law, exile Latvians and their descendants had the opportunity until July 1995 to register as Latvian citizens without giving up citizenship in their home countries. Since July 1995, dual citizenship has been outlawed.

Latvia’s Supreme Court, which is in the process of ruling on a case involving an ethnic Latvian family living in Germany, said in an Aug. 25 opinion that the restrictions are unconstitutional and called on the Constitutional Court to take a look at the citizenship law.

Baiba Lapiņa-Strunska and Viktors Strunskis and their daughter Rauna went to court after the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (Pilsonības un migrācijas lietu pārvalde, or PMLP) told them that they would have to give up their German citizenship before they could register as Latvian citizens. The Strunskis family contended that passports issued to them by Latvian legations in exile were evidence that they already were Latvian citizens, but the PMLP disagreed.

According to the Supreme Court, under the principle of state continuity Latvia as a nation did not disappear with the start of the Soviet occupation. The legations in exile continued the work of the pre-war Latvian state.

The Supreme Court also said in its opinion that the 1995 deadline to apply for Latvian citizenship and the prohibition on dual citizenship are unconstitutional.

About 30,000 ethnic Latvians became dual citizens before the 1995 deadline, but many have complained that they did not know about the cut-off date. Lapiņa-Strunska, commenting on the Supreme Court’s decision in August, estimated that at least 500,000 ethnic Latvians could be affected by a Constitutional Court ruling.

The Constitutional Court has asked Latvia’s parliament, the Saeima, to submit a written response to the constitutional challenge by Oct. 23. The court expects to finish its preparations by Dec. 23, including collecting other materials that will allow judges to objectively evaluate the case, Kovalevska told Latvians Online in an e-mail.

The court will then determine a hearing date for the case as well as whether the case will be heard in open session or through a written process. An opinion, Kovalevska said, is supposed to be rendered within 30 days of the hearing date.

“The practice so far,” Kovalevska added, “suggests that from the initiation of a case until a judgment is issued on average takes from six to nine months.”

It’s not every day the president comes to your school, but for some New York pupils Sept. 20 will be that day. Latvian President Valdis Zatlers will visit the school at the New York Latvian Ev.-Lutheran Church as he starts a week-long visit to the United States.

Zatlers’ agenda for the week, according to the president’s press office, is focused on events at the United Nations, where the 64th General Assembly is meeting.

The president’s visit will include a speech to political science and international relations students at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.; participation in a U.N.-organized summit on global climate change as well as in the Clinton Global Initiative, as well as one-on-one meetings with other world leaders.

Details of the president’s week in the United States include:

• Sept. 20: Participation in a 10 a.m. church service in the New York Latvian Ev.-Lutheran Church, 4 Riga Lane, Melville, including visiting the Latvian school and meeting members of the Latvian community.
•  Sept. 21: Lunch with orthopaedics professor Kristaps Keggi of the Yale School of Medicine, with medical school Dean Robert Alpern, as well as a visit to the school and a meeting with orthopaedics students. Zatlers also will speak to political science and international relations students on “Transatlantic Dynamics After the Global Economic Crisis,” scheduled at 4 p.m. in Room 203, Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Ave., New Haven. A reception will follow in The Macmillan Center.
• Sept. 22: Participation in the U.N. organized summit on global climate change. Zatlers also will attend the fifth annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, an effort started by former U.S. President Bill Clinton to encourage governments, the private sector and non-governmental organizations to collaborate on solving world problems.
• Sept. 23: Participation in the opening ceremony of the U.N.‘s 64th General Assembly; meetings with several heads of state; visiting with representatives of the American Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Committee and B’nai B’rith International; and participation in a reception hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama in honor of the General Assembly.
• Sept. 24: Participation in a roundtable discussion organized by Daris G. Dēliņš, Latvia’s honorary consul in New York, and meeting with President Fatmir Sejdiu of Kosovo. Zatlers is scheduled to address the U.N. General Assembly at 5 p.m. Eastern time.
• Sept. 25: Meeting with businessman and philanthropist George Soros.

Accompanying the president will be First Lady Lilita Zatlers. She wll attend the second annual World Focus on Autism, which will headed by Ban Soon-taek, wife of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Latvian Foreign Minister Māris Riekstiņš also is expected to participate in the U.N. General Assembly, according to a press release from the ministry. He is scheduled to have meetings with his counterparts from Canada, Israel, Kazakhstan, Malta, Montenegro and Serbia. Riekstiņš also is to participate in meetings with other European Union foreign ministers, as well as with Baltic and Nordic foreign ministers.