On 21 October 1998, the map of Latvia became a matter of law in the Saeima chamber. Deputies adopted the Administrative Territorial Reform Law in its third reading: 66 voted in favour, none against, and 3 abstained. The law’s aim sounded practical rather than ceremonial: to create economically viable territories with local governments able to provide quality services. Behind that sentence began a long redrawing—from a mosaic of parishes and towns toward Latvia as a country of municipalities.

Administrative territorial reform was one of the major tasks in reorganizing post-Soviet Latvia’s public administration. The 1998 law created the legal framework for a process that repeatedly reshaped the municipal map over the following decades and kept alive debates about the strength of local centres.