thereafter. However, a significant number of Russians in Latvia still have alien status. As of January 2022, the vast majority of Latvia's ethnic Russians, 66.5% or 302,230 persons, had citizenship. Anyone who legally (according to Soviet law) gained a residence in Latvia before the summer of 1992 was able to claim that residence upon Latvian independence, even if that legal basis included Soviet confiscation of property. Returning property owners seeking to reclaim their possessions were compensated with equal land elsewhere, with no recourse to reclaim the particular property itself, or with certificates which could be used as discount coupons in acquiring shares in privatized properties. The Latvian government also pays pensions to all resident retirees regardless of ethnicity or citizenship or non-citizen status. Russian language Another issue of contention for some Russians and Russian speakers in Latvia (most notably Social Democratic Party "Harmony", Latvian Russian Union, Headquarters for the Protection of Russian Schools and For the Native Language!) is the status of the Russian language as Latvian is defined by the Law on State Language as the only official language in Latvia. On February 18, 2012, Latvia held a constitutional referendum on whether to adopt Russian as a second official language. According to the Central Election Commission, 74.8% voted against, 24.9% voted for and the voter turnout was 71.1%. Beginning in 2019, instruction in Russian language will be gradually discontinued in private colleges and universities, as well as general instruction in public high schools, except for subjects related to culture and history of the Russian minority, such as Russian language and literature classes. Political representation There are several politicians and political parties in Latvia who claim to represent the Russian-speaking minority. These include the Latvian Russian Union which has one seat in the European parliament held by Tatjana Ždanoka, and the Harmony party with two seats held by Nils Ušakovs and Andris Ameriks. These political parties support Russian language rights, the granting of automatic citizenship to all non-citizens of Latvia and tend to be left-wing on other issues. Several politicians of Russian ethnicity also have held high ranking governmental positions in Latvia, such as who was the Minister for Welfare of Latvia and the Minister of Environmental Protection and Regional Development, Vjačeslavs Dombrovskis who served as the Minister for Education and Science of Latvia and the Minister of Economics. and Nils Ušakovs who was the Mayor of Riga from 2009