Latvia's election commission clears vote counting to begin after hours of delay

Latvia's Central Election Commission (CVK) authorized polling stations to begin counting votes shortly after midnight, around 00:15, the Riga Election Commission told the LETA news agency.

The decision followed confirmation from all municipalities that work with the Electronic Online Voter Register (ETVR) had been completed. Polling stations must now verify ETVR data, mark on voter lists which ballots are to be annulled, and record the daily count of such cases in the election log.

Reason for the delay

The counting process was held up because commissions had to confirm that voters who had deposited their ballots for safekeeping earlier had not also voted again on election day or deposited a ballot a second time. This check is required to prevent ballots from being counted twice.

The State Regional Development Agency stated that the delay was not related to the Election Platform itself or to the ETVR system's functioning.

Timeline of the night's events

Several hours after polling stations closed, vote counting still had not started, as data verification in the ETVR system continued, Riga Election Commission member Laura Krastiņa told LETA. Around 22:30, deputy CVK chair Iveta Blaua announced that because data needed clarification in many municipalities, ballot boxes were not being opened yet. An emergency CVK session was convened to decide on next steps.

During this period, voting results briefly appeared on the CVK website for a number of polling stations abroad, as well as for one station in Jūrmala, even though opening the ballot boxes had not yet been authorized. The Jūrmala station's data later disappeared from the website.

Around 23:00, the CVK announced that its emergency session had decided to allow opening of the ballot boxes used on Saturday that contained no registration envelopes left over from the earlier voting period.

After counting was cleared to begin past midnight, the first results for individual polling stations started appearing in the CVK database — the first to report was the Strautiņi library station in Alūksne municipality. A CVK press conference was scheduled for 1 a.m. at Riga State Gymnasium No. 1 to explain the reasons behind the delay.