“New Accord” disputes Riga City Council election results in court / Article / LSM.lv

The party “New Harmony” has appealed to the Administrative Regional Court, contesting the results of the Riga City Council’s extraordinary elections, the party’s representatives informed LETA.

LETA has already reported that the Central Election Commission (CEC) on Thursday decided to reject all complaints about the compilation of Riga City Council election results and did not cancel the election results both in individual polling stations and in the capital as a whole.

The “New Harmony” has challenged this decision of the CEC in court and demands to annul the decisions of the two polling station commissions, to announce new elections in these polling stations, to transfer votes in all Riga polling stations, as well as to announce new extraordinary elections or voting in Riga.

Kristīne Bērziņa, Chair of the CEC, previously explained to LETA that the main argument why the CEC rejected all the complaints was that the CEC’s powers were not wide enough to determine the content of the 627 unstamped envelopes and therefore not included in the election results.

If initially mistakes were made in the election organization procedure and unstamped envelopes were given to the voters, then in the second part of the procedure everything happened correctly and accurately, Bērziņa added.

The election law stipulates that unstamped envelopes found in the ballot box must be rejected, and this was observed, Bērziņa emphasized.

CVK members generally agreed that CVK is not the most appropriate institution that can handle such disputes and complaints, the court can give a broader assessment, Bērziņa added.

The CEC had received submissions from representatives of four lists of candidates – the party “New Harmony”, the party “Harmony”, the Latvian Russian Union and the party “Alternative” – ​​to contest the election results.

In its submission, the “New Accord” requested to annul both the decision of the Riga City Election Commission on the approval of the election results and the results of the 97th and 144th polling stations of the City of Riga. During the counting of votes in these polling stations, a total of 627 ballot envelopes without the stamp of the polling station were found in the ballot boxes, which are considered invalid in accordance with the election law and CVK instructions and are not included in the total election result. In addition, eight people were not given the opportunity to vote at home because representatives of the election commission did not come to them.

The Latvian Russian Union asked the CEC to ensure the transfer of votes in the 97th and 144th polling stations in the city of Riga, recognizing the unstamped ballot envelopes found in the ballot boxes in these polling stations as valid.

The candidates for deputies of the Social Democratic Party “S directly” Antons Klindžāns and Vladimirs Frolovs asked to hold a repeat vote in the 97th and 144th polling stations of the city of Riga.

The political party “Alternative” requested to annul the decision of the Riga City Election Commission regarding the approval of the results of the Riga City Council extraordinary elections and to make a decision on announcing the repeated Riga City Council extraordinary elections.

The chairman of CVK Bērziņš told LETA that the newly elected council will not be able to start work until the relevant court decision. CVK’s decisions can be challenged within three working days by submitting an application to the Regional Administrative Court. The district court must make a decision within seven days of receiving the application – it will be final and uncontested.

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