“At present, I have no information from national security services or any other competent institutions that would call into question the legitimacy or validity of the election results,” President Edgars Rinkēvičs stated on Wednesday after meeting with Prime Minister Evika Siliņa (New Unity).
The President noted that the conduct of the municipal elections would be evaluated on Wednesday afternoon during a session of the National Security Council (NSC).
Also invited to the session were the Chair of the Central Election Commission (CEC) and Minister for Smart Administration and Regional Development Inga Bērziņa (New Unity), who announced her resignation on Wednesday.
Rinkēvičs referred to last week’s reports about alleged foreign interference in the elections, stating that such interference did not occur. “That’s when the problems began,” he said, emphasizing that this matter falls under the NSC’s purview.
The NSC meeting will also discuss how to better organize future elections to meet the high legal standards and avoid disruptions.
The President stressed that if any party or candidate believes that elections in a particular municipality were not conducted lawfully or that vote counting was inaccurate, there is a clear legal process to challenge such outcomes.
At the same time, he noted that what is rarely seen in Latvia had occurred — responsible officials had accepted their share of accountability.
He added that administrative responsibility is being assessed and further accountability regarding system failures will be evaluated.
“In my view, this demonstrates how seriously we treat any potential issues in the election system, which is the foundation of democracy,” Rinkēvičs stated.
The President expressed hope that both the acceptance of responsibility and the ongoing system review and improvements will not cause lasting damage to public trust in the electoral system.
According to Rinkēvičs, there can be no doubt about the integrity of the election commission members. He thanked them for their work and for not abandoning polling stations under difficult conditions, instead doing everything they could.
The President acknowledged that these elections were not the finest moment in Latvia’s democratic history.
“But painful lessons like this sometimes happen — and we must learn from them and prepare for future elections with the utmost responsibility.”
As reported, the vote counting process in the 2025 municipal elections on Saturday and into Sunday night encountered technical problems. Technical issues also disrupted polling stations throughout the week during early voting.
The CEC also faced criticism over poor communication — both with the public and with polling stations. On one day during early voting, the CEC announced that an external cyberattack had occurred, which later turned out to be false. On election night, when the voting system experienced technical failures and vote counting could not proceed digitally, polling stations reportedly went a long time without receiving instructions on how to proceed.
President Rinkēvičs previously stated that both the CEC and the State Agency for Digital Affairs (VDAA) failed in their responsibilities, and that the accountability of officials must be evaluated.
A few days ago, Minister Bērziņa suspended VDAA Director Jorens Liopa over the election mishandling. On Wednesday, Bērziņa also announced her own resignation.
Meanwhile, CEC Chair Kristīne Saulīte informed the Saeima committee before being questioned that she would resign — but later said she was reconsidering that decision.
State Chancellery Director Raivis Kronbergs told journalists on Monday after an inter-institutional task force meeting that no internal investigation into the vote counting failures had yet been launched, as all necessary and available information must first be collected.
Commenting on the vote-counting process, Iveta Kažoka, Director and Lead Researcher at the think tank Providus, who served as an election observer, told LETA that the process of counting “for” and “against” marks on ballots was “below any standard” and error-prone. The “four-eyes principle” was not followed, and the CEC’s instructions for handling such cases were impossible to implement in real life.
She added that given the situation in most polling stations on Sunday night, it would have been theoretically quite easy for someone to artificially inflate or reduce support for a candidate.
In some municipalities, several political parties have already contested the election results.