A decision was made during the night to Sunday to count all votes manually across Latvia, Central Election Commission (CVK) spokesperson Andrejs Vaivars told the LETA news agency.
Vaivars explained that this decision was made because the automated vote-counting system proved to be too slow.
Responsibility for the election system lies with the State Agency for Digital Affairs (VDAA).
As reported, people took to social media overnight to express frustration over technical disruptions to the CVK websiteduring election night.
According to LETA’s observations, social media users began experiencing problems accessing the CVK website just as the vote-counting process began, making it impossible to follow real-time updates.
LETA also noted that the CVK website experienced repeated issues, and some of the data displayed was inaccurate — such as the incorrect number of polling stations.
No new vote count data had appeared on the CVK website for over an hour, with the last update made before midnight.
Throughout the week, the CVK has faced criticism over its handling of the electoral process and its technical shortcomings.
As previously reported, technical and organizational issues during the municipal election process have led to growing criticism from stakeholders and observers regarding the performance of the CVK and the VDAA.
According to the latest, though still incomplete, data compiled by the CVK, overall voter turnout has reached 47.01%, including those who participated in early voting.
On Saturday alone, from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, 30.89% of eligible voters cast their ballots.
The highest turnout was recorded in Riga, where 52.34% of eligible voters participated. Riga was followed by Vidzemewith 48.09%, Zemgale with 43.56%, Kurzeme with 42.28%, and Latgale with 41.25%.
During the five days of early voting, 16.11% of eligible voters participated.
In the 2021 municipal elections, elections were not held in Riga (as the city council had been elected in a special election the year before), nor in Rēzekne and Varakļāni municipalities, where elections were postponed due to a Constitutional Court ruling and later held in September 2021. Currently, Varakļāni Municipality has been merged into Madona Municipality and is now part of the Vidzeme electoral district (previously it belonged to Latgale).
A total of 1,377,183 Latvian citizens were eligible to vote in this year’s municipal elections, with 948 polling stationsavailable across the country.
Voting on Saturday was open from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM.
Unlike in previous municipal elections, this year voters were allowed to cast their ballot at any polling station within their municipality.