If you live in Australia and want to vote by mail in Latvia’s Aug. 2 constitutional referendum, you will need to find a different country to which to send your application. Both honorary consulates in Adelaide and Sydney have withdrawn from the list of locations where passports and mail ballot requests can be sent, the Central Election Commission announced June 17 in Rīga.

Vote-by-mail applications are due July 11, but the date coincides with the 2008 All Latvia Song and Dance Festival, which runs July 5-12 in Rīga. Honorary consuls Valdis Tomanis in Adelaide and Aldis Birzulis in Sydney, along with other experienced election workers, will be in Latvia during the festival and so will not be able to handle mail ballot requests, commission spokeswoman Kristīne Bērziņa said in a press release.

Latvian citizens in Australia will still be able to vote in person on Aug. 2 at polling places in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. The referendum will ask whether Latvia’s constitution should be amended to allow citizens to initiate dismissal of the Saeima.

Election commission Chairman Arnis Cimdars is disappointed that the honorary consuls have declined to process mail ballot applications, Bērziņa said in the press release.

Applications for mail ballots are being accepted at 11 other locations, including the Latvian embassies in Berlin, Germany; Brussels, Belgium; Copenhagen, Denmark; Dublin, Ireland; London, United Kingdom; Minsk, Belarus; Oslo, Norway; Ottawa, Canada; Stockholm, Sweden, and Washington, D.C., in the United States, as well as at the honorary consulate in São Paulo, Brazil.

Latvian citizens in Australia may send requests for mail ballots to one of those locations, but will have to spend more for express mail service than if they could use the local consulates, the election commission said.

Further information on the referendum and the election process is available from the Central Election Commission’s Web site, www.cvk.lv.

If a downtown Rīga boulevard could be renamed for Latvia’s first foreign minister, then why not the country’s leading airport? That’s the suggestion of Rīga Mayor Jānis Birks.

Speaking to Latvian Independent Television, Birks on June 17 suggested authorities consider renaming Rīga International Airport to Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics Airport. Meierovics served as Latvia’s first foreign minister and wanted to open the country to the world, Birks said, according to media reports.

Birks’ suggestion comes as the Rīga City Council waits to act on a proposal to rename Basteja Boulevard to Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics Boulevard.

Krišjānis Peters, chairman of the airport’s board of directors, supports the idea of adding the Meierovics name to the airport, but only as a secondary title, according to the Delfi portal. The airport is 100 percent owned by the Latvian government.

Transport Minister Ainārs Šlesers, meanwhile, opposes the idea.

“The airport with its RIX name has earned itself international recognition,” he said in a press release. “It has become a brand as with any respectable company, be it BMW, Audi or Nike. Changing the name would cause miscomprehension and would raise questions if by chance another airport has not appeared in Latvia.”

Meierovics, who became foreign minister when Latvia declared its independence in 1918, died in a one-car accident in 1925.

Basteja Boulevard, which runs at the edge of Rīga’s Old Town, was called Meierovics Boulevard from 1929 until 1941. Current Foreign Minister Māris Riekstiņš suggested earlier this year that the Meierovics name be restored, an idea supported by President Valdis Zatlers and the World Federation of Free Latvians (Pasaules brīvo latviešu apvienība), among others.

Birks, however, would rather leave the Basteja name, according to media reports. A city council commission overseeing place names is against the change to Meierovics Boulevard, citing the historical significance of Basteja Boulevard.