RIGA, June 1 (LETA) - Veteran politician Ainars Slesers, the candidate for mayor of Riga for the Latvia First party, plans to win 51 percent of the vote in the Riga City Council elections, the politician told LETA in an interview.

"I think that the last emergency elections showed that the parties currently in power have not coped with their duties, that they have to step aside. I will offer the residents of Riga to support Ainars Slesers very actively as Mayor of Riga and give me a majority," the politician said.

Slesers said that he is the only one with a real plan of what to do and has business experience. He pointed out that people with no business experience want to run a city that needs to develop its economy. "They don't even understand what is at stake when it comes to attracting investment, they don't understand how to negotiate, how to persuade business, how to argue," said the mayoral candidate.

Slesers also mentioned that he has been involved in attracting investments all his life and has real business experience.

Slesers pointed out that other mayoral candidates do not talk about the economy at all, but only about the redistribution of taxpayers' money from one pocket to another.

In the interview, he categorically rejects the possibility of working under another mayor in Riga. His goal is becoming mayor and no other options are being considered.

As for a possible coalition, he points out that Latvia First has no red lines against anyone.

The politician also expressed confidence that he would be granted a security clearance and would not be prevented from taking up the post of mayor of Riga.

As reported, Slesers, whose name has been involved in several corruption scandals in the past, including the so-called oligarch affair, was named as one of the country's three so-called oligarchs by former Latvian President Valdis Zatlers.