Central Election Commission Halts Functional Improvements to Voting Systems; Some Solutions Postponed
The head of Latvia's Central Election Commission (CVK), Kristaps Zviedris, has announced that no further functional improvements are being made to the voting systems, with some planned solutions to be implemented only after the 15th Saeima elections. Meanwhile, the preparation of an online voter registry has been completed, and the CVK plans to hold training seminars for municipal election commissions starting in mid-July.
Kristaps Zviedris, the head of Latvia's Central Election Commission (CVK), stated that no functional improvements are currently being made to the election systems. He acknowledged that many initial visions and aspirations will only be realized in the next elections, not the upcoming 15th Saeima elections scheduled for early October. Zviedris emphasized that the system modules are completed to a certain extent, and work will continue with the existing solutions, even though they are not yet optimal.
Last year, tests and improvements were carried out up until election day, but the situation has changed this year. In June, Zviedris revealed to journalists that the main focus had been on preparing an online voter registry, and this task has been successfully completed. The implementation of other technical solutions is proceeding according to plan.
To familiarize municipal election commissions with the new solutions, the CVK will begin in-person seminars from mid-July. These training sessions are expected to involve representatives of system developers. By the end of August, the CVK plans to visit all municipal election commissions, organizing meetings in groups.
It should be recalled that at the end of April, the Cabinet of Ministers decided in an emergency meeting to transfer the development of election systems to state-owned or partially state-owned enterprises – SIA "Latvijas mobilais telefons" (LMT), SIA "Tet", and "Latvijas valsts meži" (LVM). Consequently, the contract with the previous platform developer "RIX Technologies" was terminated. This move was justified by Section 8 of Article 3 of the Public Procurement Law, which allows derogation from public procurement procedures when necessary to protect significant national security interests.
