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NEPLP Members Accused of Undemocratically Securing Each Other’s Elections
🇱🇻 Latvia /Elections & Politics

NEPLP Members Accused of Undemocratically Securing Each Other’s Elections

From Delfi Latvia · () Latvian

Translated from Latvian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources In the courts
  • Latvian media regulator member Andis Plakans accused chair Aurēlija Ieva Druviete and deputy chair Ieva Kalderauska of improperly using a casting vote in their June elections.
  • Plakans said the votes were tied and argued that a chair should not cast an additional vote when participating in their own election, potentially raising questions about the legality of later council decisions.
  • Druviete rejected the accusation, said both elections were lawful, and said she and Kalderauska had appealed €500 fines imposed by Latvia’s anti-corruption bureau.

Andis Plakans, a member of Latvia’s National Electronic Mass Media Council, says the body’s chair and deputy chair effectively used a second vote to secure each other’s positions. In a letter circulated to the media, he called the June elections undemocratic.

Plakans said the vote to elect Aurēlija Ieva Druviete as chair ended in a two-to-two split. He and fellow council member Ilva Milzarāja voted against her, while Ieva Kalderauska and Druviete voted in favor. Druviete won after her vote, cast as acting chair at the time, counted as decisive.

The council’s internal rules state that the chair’s vote decides a tie, Plakans acknowledged. But he pointed to an exception involving a possible conflict of interest. Another provision says a council member should withdraw from consideration and voting when such a conflict may exist.

The essential question is this: in democratic elections in which an institution’s leader is elected, should any voter have two votes?

— Andis PlakansHe questioned whether the casting-vote mechanism could be used in the chair’s own election.

According to Plakans, the same mechanism then helped elect Kalderauska as deputy chair. “The essential question is this: in democratic elections in which an institution’s leader is elected, should any voter have two votes?” he asked. He argued that all four members should have had equal voting rights and warned that doubts about the leadership elections could also affect the legal consequences of council decisions.

Druviete told LETA that she and Kalderauska were elected lawfully and dismissed Plakans’ arguments. “The law provides that the council itself determines its internal procedure for making any decision,” she said. Druviete also said Latvia’s Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau had fined her and Kalderauska €500 each for violating restrictions under the conflict-of-interest law. Both appealed, she said, and a response from the bureau was due by September 7.

The law provides that the council itself determines its internal procedure for making any decision.

— Aurēlija Ieva DruvieteShe defended the legality of the elections and rejected Plakans’ arguments.
About this summary

Originally published by Delfi Latvia in Latvian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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