National Alliance MP Butāns amends education details submitted to election commission

Artūrs Butāns, a member of parliament for the National Alliance, has revised the education information he submitted to Latvia's Central Election Commission (CVK) after the LETA news agency began asking questions about a qualification he obtained in Australia.

In election documents from 2018 and 2022, and initially also in this year's candidate registration for the 15th Saeima, Butāns had listed higher education, citing a business management qualification from a college in Sydney completed in 2018. After journalists raised questions, that entry was removed from his 2026 candidate card, which now lists secondary education as his highest level — completed in 2012 at a distance-learning secondary school in Riga.

Certificate never formally recognized

Butāns explained that he obtained a business management certificate in Australia but never submitted it in Latvia for academic recognition. He acknowledged that since earning the certificate in 2018, he had not looked into having it formally recognized. He said he now plans to consult Latvia's Academic Information Centre (AIC) to determine whether his Australian qualification corresponds to professional or first-level higher education under Latvian standards.

AIC told LETA it cannot assess the qualification's equivalence without seeing the actual education document.

According to available information, the Sydney institution where Butāns studied was a private vocational education provider whose registration was revoked in 2020. Its program catalogue for 2018–2019 included various certificate levels as well as diploma and advanced diploma programs, classified within the Australian vocational qualifications framework — levels that do not automatically determine equivalence in Latvia.

Butāns also said that after learning of his 2022 election to parliament, he enrolled in a bachelor's degree program in Latvia, which he expects to finish by the end of this year, with plans to pursue a master's degree via distance learning next year.

Legal context

Latvia's election law requires candidates to provide truthful information about their education, and knowingly submitting false information to a state institution can carry criminal liability. In a similar case, former MP Glorija Grevcova lost her parliamentary seat in 2024 after being convicted for providing false information about her education and employment to the CVK, receiving a sentence of community service. Separately, former Olaine deputy mayor Andris Vurčs was charged in 2025 over false education claims made to a municipal election commission, though his court proceedings have been postponed.