Latvia’s recent municipal elections were secure, and no external influence was detected, the country’s prime minister, Evika Silina, told Radio Latvia on Thursday.
The premier said that this was confirmed to the government by security experts and services.
Ms Silina recalled that the Central Elections Commission (CVK) had declared during one of the early voting days that there was an external attack on the voting system, but this did not prove to be true.
“Security was not disturbed, there was no external influence, and this is very important,” the prime minister said.
Silina added, however, that the CVK was not up to the task during the election, adding that no one at the political level was aware of the possibility of technical problems that might occur. That was the responsibility of the CVK and the National Digital Development Agency (VDAA), the prime minister insisted.
Speaking to the overall security situation during the elections, Ms Silina said that the choice of the residents of Daugavpils must be respected. They party of incumbent Mayor Andrejs Elksnins (Let’s Go, Latgale!) won a landslide victory in the city.
Silina believes that as head of the government and her political party, there must be conclusions drawn as to why other parties did not manage to convince citizens in Daugavpils, but she also insisted that the security services are constantly talking about various hybrid threats. “Latvia is at a fairly high level of preparedness in preparing for such risks,” the prime minister says.
As was reported earlier, there were technical glitches during last weekend’s municipal election, and these became evident in the system during early voting.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics has said that the CVK and VDAA simply failed in organising the local elections.
The CVK was also accused of poor communications with the public and with polling stations. During one of the early voting days, the CVK announced that there had been external attack upon the system, but this proved not to be the case. Technical problems on election night meant a postponement of the counting votes, but people at polling stations did not receive timely information about what to do.
Taking responsibility of what happened, the minister of smart administration and regional development, Inga Berzina, and the chairwoman of the CVK, Kristine Saulite, resigned from their jobs. The director of the VDAA, Jorens Liopa, was suspended by the since-departed minister, but he has not announced that he will be leaving his job.
Source: BNS
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