RIGA, June 7 (LETA) - The turnout in these elections so far suggests that the overall turnout could be higher than in previous municipal elections, Lelde Metla-Rozentale, political scientist and lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Riga Stradins University, told LETA.

"This time the turnout is higher, which is a positive trend," the political scientist stressed, adding that at the moment it is only speculation and the final number of voters will be seen in the evening.

As Metla-Rozentale explained, it cannot be predict whether there will be a significant drop in turnout in the afternoon, as some people may have decided to vote in the morning for various reasons.

"At the moment, we could predict that the overall turnout will be higher," the political scientist said.

Asked how the increase in turnout could be explained, Metla-Rozentale said it was likely that the encouragement to vote had galvanized the population. Another reason, she said, was that various events in the public sphere in recent days had been sufficiently vocal, which might have led people from different groups to change their minds and go out and cast their vote.

"Even if the total number of voters is not higher, we will see that there has been a change in habits, and voters are more inclined to go out in the morning to vote," Metla-Rozentale added.

As reported, today is the official voting day in the local government elections in Latvia.

948 polling stations across Latvia will be open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Voters can vote in any of the polling stations in the municipality they are registered in.

As many as 385,930 or 28.02 percent of voters have cast their votes in the local elections in Latvia by noon today.

This includes the votes from the early voting of previous days.