After adding the votes from 661 invalid ballot envelope to the results of the Riga City Council elections, the allocation of mandates between the candidates' lists and councillors remains unchanged, according to the recalculated election results.
Following the decision of the Administrative Regional Court, ballot recount was performed in three Riga City polling stations – No. 74, 97 and 144 – on 17 September this year, when ballot envelopes previously considered as invalid were opened and votes from these envelopes were added to the total election results.
On the basis of the new minutes of vote counting of polling stations, the Riga City Election Commission will now also prepare new minutes of vote counting in the Riga City Council elections of 29 August 2020, which is scheduled to be approved on Friday, 18 September, at 15.00. According to the court's judgments, this decision may not be appealed.
The recount of votes took place at the Riga Congress Hall and was carried out by the commissions of the Riga City polling stations No. 74, 97 and 144. The recount of votes was observed by authorised observers from the lists of candidates registered for the Riga City Council election, representatives of the mass media, as well as representatives of the Central Election Commission (CEC) and the Riga City Election Commission.
In fulfilling the judgment of the Administrative Regional Court, the Riga City Election Commission had been tasked by the CEC with organising and controlling the recount of votes at these stations. The polling station commissions were ordered to hold a vote-counting session, to open packages with invalid envelopes, which have been declared invalid due to a violation of the regulatory enactments allowed by the polling station commission, to open these envelopes and to determine their content, as well as to count the votes from these envelopes in accordance with the order specified in the City Council and Municipality Council Election Law and in the CEC Instruction for Ballot Counting.
In the Riga City Council elections of 29 August this year, a total of 627 ballot envelopes without the polling station stamp were found in the ballot boxes of the polling stations No. 97 and 144. As well, 34 envelopes marked as “Early voting” were found in the ballot box of the election day at the polling station No. 74.
According to The City Council and Municipality Council Election Law, the ballot envelopes, which have not been stamped with the stamp of the relevant polling station commission, shall be deemed invalid. The vote counting instruction states that the ballot envelopes with the mark “Early voting” cast into the ballot box on the election day shall be deemed invalid, too. The election law also stipulates that invalid ballot envelopes shall be counted and packaged unopened, indicating that the package contains invalid ballot envelopes and the number of such envelopes.
In an in-depth assessment of the circumstances of the situation, hearing witnesses and representatives of the State Security Service, the court did not find abusive action by members of the polling station commissions or third parties in relation to the use of unsealed and incorrectly stamped ballot envelopes in the polling stations. The Court therefore decided that, in this case, priority should be given to the ensuring of voting rights, the invalidated ballot envelopes should be equivalent to valid ballot envelopes, and accordingly the votes cast in those envelopes should be taken into account in determining the results of the elections.
The results of the elections to the Riga City Council after the ballot recount are available on the website of the CEC https://rd2020.cvk.lv/pub/velesanu-rezultati.
Table with the election results before and after the recount of votes.
CEC Information Department
Tel. +371 67814900, +371 20237331