Preparations for the Saeima elections scheduled for this autumn are currently proceeding as planned, according to officials from the Centrālā vēlēšanu komisija (CVK) and the Valsts digitālās attīstības aģentūra (VDAA), who addressed the Saeima’s Public Administration and Local Government Committee on Tuesday.
CVK Chairman Māris Zviedris informed MPs that several instructions governing the conduct of the elections have already been developed, including guidelines for submitting candidate lists and for establishing polling stations abroad. Other instructions — such as those covering voting in prisons and postal voting from abroad — have been initiated but are not yet finalized.
He also noted that the CVK has cooperated with municipal election commissions to identify polling station locations in each municipality. Zviedris described the cooperation as generally successful, highlighting that for the first time in Saeima elections it will be possible to vote at a shopping centre outside Riga — the “Sāga” shopping centre in Ropaži municipality. In Riga, voting will be available at 12 shopping centres.
Mobile polling stations will also be introduced in several municipalities. “In simple terms — similar to a mobile shop. These will be buses travelling closer to voters,” Zviedris explained. Such stations will primarily target more remote areas where voter turnout has previously been low due to difficulties reaching fixed polling locations. “These will be municipal buses arriving at a specific place at a specific time,” he added.
The recruitment of core polling station staff is scheduled to be completed by 31 May. Training sessions and seminars for election workers will take place in August, and from 24 to 30 August a full-scale election rehearsal will be conducted. During this exercise, polling stations will test the ballot-scanning system (SKENIS). It was this system that experienced several technical issues during the most recent municipal elections, leading to resignations and dismissals of certain officials.
Zviedris explained that votes are primarily intended to be counted automatically using the local SKENIS system.
If problems arise, votes will be counted via a cloud-based solution. As a last resort, manual vote counting will be carried out, although such a decision must be justified and taken by the relevant municipal election commission.
Meanwhile, VDAA Director Valdis Pusvācietis told MPs that the key objective remains completing all development and testing work related to the election system by 30 June, allowing for a “code freeze” of the software on that date. After that point, no significant functional changes will be made to election-critical components.
“At this stage, we are confident this will happen. We are sticking to the plan,” Pusvācietis said.
He added that on 6 February a contract was signed to implement adjustments to the election platform and the electronic online voter register. The analysis phase is expected to conclude this week, after which actual development work will begin.
A contract with the developer of the local SKENIS system has not yet been signed but is expected shortly. The technical specifications for its development are already prepared.
Whether municipal computers will be capable of supporting the local SKENIS system will become clear once testing begins at the end of April.
The Saeima elections are scheduled for early October.
As previously reported, the 2025 municipal elections were marred by technical problems. Issues at polling stations also occurred during the early voting period.
The CVK faced criticism for inadequate communication with both the public and polling stations. On one early voting day, the commission announced that the system had been subjected to an external attack, which later proved untrue. On election night, when technical failures prevented vote counting in the election system, polling stations reportedly received no timely guidance on how to proceed.
In early August, VDAA Director Jorens Liopa was demoted for violations related to the organization of information technology processes during the municipal elections. An investigation concluded that he had committed a disciplinary offence in the performance of his duties.
Earlier, due to problems in organizing the election process, then-CVK Chair Kristīne Saulīte resigned, as did Smart Administration and Regional Development Minister Inga Bērziņa (New Unity), who had previously suspended Liopa from his post.