RIGA, May 31 (LETA) - A total of 4,603 voters cast their ballots in less than an hour after polling stations opened for early voting in Latvia's local elections on Monday, Central Election Commission representative Laura Zaharova told LETA. 

She informed that all polling stations have opened as scheduled and without incidents. The representative of the Central Election Commission indicated that in the regions of Rezekne and Madona, where the elections have been postponed, information about the changes have been placed at the polling stations and on the two local governments' websites. 

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 Madone after the Supreme Court invalidated the Varaklani region's merger with the Rezekne region.