The State Police has launched a departmental investigation into Olaine Regional Council member Andris Vurčs (SV/AJ), who may have provided false information about his education to the Central Election Commission (CVK), the police confirmed to LETA.
As reported, the Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development (VARAM) turned to the State Police, asking them to assess possible false information about Vurčs’ education to the CVK.
The Local Government Council Election Law stipulates that candidates for council members who have provided deliberately false information about themselves in their candidate declaration are criminally liable in accordance with Article 272 of the Criminal Law, but in the event of electing, the relevant council member’s mandate as a member will also be revoked, the Ministry indicates.
Latvian Television previously reported that the Olaine Deputy Mayor may have falsely claimed to the CVK that he had completed secondary education in 2002.
Vurčs’ former schoolmates question the information he provided about his secondary education
at Olaine 1st Secondary School. He was supposed to finish the 12th grade in 2001, but then he stopped coming to school regularly and did not graduate. Vurčs told CVK that he graduated from this school in 2002, but the television station has information that he did not take the centralized exams in 2002.
Later, the municipality received a certificate about Vurčs’ primary education, but there is still no information about the secondary education he completed.
The municipality has requested information about Vurčs’ education at Olaine 1st Secondary School and provided it to the mass media and the Olaine Regional Election Commission. The information provided by the educational institution indicates that Vurčs received a certificate of primary education at Olaine 1st Secondary School, while his studies in the general secondary education program were interrupted when he was in the 11th grade.
“In connection with the inaccuracy that has arisen in the information about my education,
I state the following: my education after Olaine 1st Secondary School was continued in the United Kingdom.
I have provided the necessary explanations to the responsible authorities,” Vurčs replied to the municipality.
The municipality previously confirmed to LETA that it had no information about whether secondary education in the United Kingdom was also completed.
Vurčs recently held the position of deputy chairman of the Olaine Regional Council, but last week, before the council meeting, which was scheduled to decide on his dismissal, he announced that he was resigning.
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