Opinion polls suggest most votes will go to Harmony Center, which has portrayed itself as the only center-left party that would boost social spending after tough austerity measures and delay Latvia’s entry into the debt-plagued euro zone.
Harmony is trying to move beyond its traditional base to win support across the ethnic divide.
But suspicions of Russian influence and differences with potential coalition partners over economic policy may stop Harmony entering government for the first time since Latvian independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
This could leave Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis and former President Valdis Zatlers, who forced the early election only a year after the last vote, in the driving seat of forming a new government.
“Certainly myself and Unity, we have worked to get the best possible results, so we are ready to continue (in office),” Dombrovskis told reporters after voting, referring to the center-right party which he leads.
Nils Ushakov, 35, one of Harmony’s candidates for prime minister, said he was hopeful of winning.
“It is important to get down to work to form an effective coalition and then work on tough decisions,” he told reporters.
By noon (0900 GMT), almost 24 percent of the 1.5 million electorate had voted, slightly less than at the same time in the October election.
“I’ll vote for Harmony Center because they know how to pull this country out of its mess ... I hope they get into the government this time,” said Viktors, 61, an aviation technician, who declined to give his family name.
He said the next government should seek easier terms on a 7.5 billion euro ($10 billion) international bailout that Latvia had to take during the economic crisis of 2008.
“They also should renegotiate the bailout agreement to extend payments for a longer period. We should get back on our feet before starting to pay back,” he added.
Latvian media have highlighted Harmony’s ties with the United Russia Party of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as a sign the party would bring Latvia more under Russian influence.
Analysts say Dombrovskis’s Unity party and another formed by Zatlers, who forced the election to counter the political influence of oligarchs, could form the core of a new government but not win a majority in parliament.
The parties’ most widely tipped partner is a nationalist bloc, but some see Harmony as a possible ally.
Voting is due to finish at 10 p.m. (1900 GMT).
“I’ll go to vote. Maybe something will be better, but I don’t expect any big changes. In general, people are disappointed and they don’t care. People have lost trust in politicians,” said Kristaps Celeste, 27, a student.
Critics say three oligarchs have used their wealth to influence politics and favor their own business interests or those of their associates. The three have denied any wrongdoing.
Zatlers triggered the election by ordering the dissolution of parliament after lawmakers refused permission for prosecutors to search a flat owned by a businessman, who is also a member of parliament and one of the alleged oligarchs.
Latvians overwhelmingly backed his decision in a July referendum. By then Zatlers had failed to be re-elected as president by parliament, and he formed his own party.
The latest poll showed Harmony Center leading the race on 21 percent support, with Dombrovskis’s Unity and Zatlers’s Reform Party vying for second place with about 15 percent each.
Dombrovskis, 40, led Latvia through a package of public sector pay cuts, which saw some salaries reduced by 50 percent, and higher taxes after the 2008 crisis and negotiated the international bailout. His Unity party won the last election in October 2010 with 33 seats.
He campaigned on a platform of further fiscal austerity to help Latvia adopt the euro in 2014, policies Zatlers backs for the country, which regained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and joined the European Union and NATO in 2004.
Dombrovskis says his policies have restored international confidence in Latvia and brought about the current recovery from an 18 percent drop in economic output in 2009.
Harmony faces tough questions about its attitude to history. Many ethnic Latvians see the 50 years of Soviet rule as an occupation, while many of Harmony’s Russian-speaking supporters are insulted by that word.
