On Saturday, the 20th of May, the principal of Ērģeme Primary School, independent Valka County Council deputy Gita Avote was elected as the new chairman of the municipal council.
Avote was elected to the council from the combined list of Vidzeme Party and For Latvia’s Development. In March 2023 she left the faction of former council chairman Vents Armands Krauklis’ Vidzeme Party.
Krauklis was a candidate for the chairman’s post, but only six deputies voted in his favour.
As previously reported, on Friday, the 19th of May, the municipal council received a request for an extraordinary meeting to elect a new council chairman, because the previous one – Vents Armadns Krauklis – was dismissed from this post on the 18th of May.
On the 18th of May six opposition deputies – Zariņš, Kristaps Sula, Guntis Albergs, Dace Bašķe, Agnis Birkavs, Juris Žurovičs, as well as three independent deputies – voted in favour of dismissal of the municipality’s chairman Krauklis from his post. They explained their decision by saying they lost trust in him.
Last summer multiple Valka municipal deputies submitted a request for the council chairman’s dismissal.
In this request deputies claimed that Krauklis has committed multiple violations. Deputies accused him of breaching the Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest in Activities of Public Officials again after receiving a penalty from the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau. Opposition deputies also say the mayor “has also made numerous arbitrary decisions in regards to the use of property owned by the municipality while in a conflict of interests and causing losses to the municipality, hiding information from deputies about topics that are in their competence and which only deputies of the municipal council have the authority to resolve together. He also performed various private deals the outcome of which depended on votes of the municipal council.”
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