In total, 847 envelopes were declared invalid in the Riga City Council extraordinary elections, CVK representative Laura Zaharova informed.
As CVK explained to LETA, not only envelopes without the seal of the polling station commission are considered invalid, but also torn ballot envelopes, envelopes that do not bear the name of the respective election or whose form has not been approved by CVK. Also not valid are the ballot envelopes thrown in the ballot box of the August 29 election day and marked “Previous Voting”.
The procedure for counting votes shall provide that invalid ballot envelopes shall be counted and unopened, indicating that there are invalid ballot envelopes in the bundle, as well as the number thereof. The total number of invalid ballot envelopes must be recorded in the vote counting protocol, according to the CVK representative.
As invalid ballot envelopes are not counted, statistics on why each of the envelopes has been declared invalid are not compiled, Zaharova explained. On the other hand, the difference between the number of voters and the number of valid envelopes is in each election, both because some envelopes are invalid due to the above-mentioned circumstances or because fewer envelopes are found in ballot boxes than in voter lists, the only explanation being that some voters do not throw in the ballot box.
In municipal elections, the election commission of the particular municipality must verify the accuracy of the information provided by the polling stations before announcing the final results. Answering the question about the reasons for the invalidity of the envelopes, CVK indicated that more detailed information about the invalid envelopes should be asked to the Chairman of the Riga City Election Commission Juris Kokins.
As reported, the ruling of the Regional Administrative Court in the claim of the party “New Accord”, by which it has challenged the results of the Riga City Council extraordinary elections, will be available on September 14 after 5 p.m.
Today, the court heard two witnesses, the heads of the 144th and 97th polling stations, who explained how the situation with unstamped envelopes had arisen. According to them, in both cases it was a mistake of negligence. Today, the court hearing also revealed that 34 envelopes were declared invalid at the 74th polling station.
As reported, the representatives of the “New Harmony” party, certain politicians of the “Harmony” party, the Latvian Russian Union (LKS) and the “Alternative” party have submitted complaints to the court regarding the election results.
In its submission, the “New Accord” requests 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 newly elected council will not be able to start work until the relevant court decision. The district court must make a decision within seven days of receiving the application – it will be final and uncontested.
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