RIGA, June 1 (LETA) - A total of 15,483 people or 1.65 percent of all eligible voters cast their ballots during the first day of the early voting in Latvia's local elections on Monday, Central Election Commission reported on the data from 726 out of 731 polling stations.

People were most active in Vidzeme where 7,436 people or 2 percent of all voters cast their ballots, according to data from 241 out of 244 polling stations. In Latgale, 2,820 people or 1.6 percent of voters cast their ballots in 171 out of 173 polling stations. In Zemgale, 2,856 people or 1,36 percent voted in 164 polling stations, while in Kurzeme - 2,371 people or 1.29 percent of voters went to 151 polling stations for early voting.

As reported, early voting in Latvia's 2021 local elections began at 731 polling stations across Latvia on Monday afternoon. The polling stations will close at 20:00 this evening.

Early voting will not take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, but will resume on Thursday, June 3, when the polling stations will be open from 9:00 to 16:00.

On Friday, June 4, polling stations will be open from 13:00 to 20:00 and on the day of local elections voting will take place from 7:00 to 20:00.

This year, local elections in Latvia are taking place in 39 municipalities - six cities and 33 regions. The newly created South Kurzeme region, for instance, is one constituency and voters in this region can cast their ballots at any polling station within its territory.

There will be no elections in Riga this year because the capital city's council was already elected last year. Also, local elections have been put off in the regions of Rezekne and Madona after the Supreme Court invalidated the Varaklani region's merger with the Rezekne region.