Meeting was intended to give Egils Levits a more detailed insight into CEC’s action plan for Riga City Council elections and cooperation with Citizenship and Migration Office, temporary administration of Riga City and Riga Electoral Commission, which is responsible for practical aspects of the election preparation.
Egils Levits was particularly interested in public health and safety arrangements during the snap elections, and the availability of personal protective equipment for polling station teams. Head of the Commission informed President Levits that CEC has requested and received safe election recommendations from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. It is, however, unclear how voting at home option will be provided to sick and older people. Egils Levits and Kristīne Bērziņa discussed how several other countries have handled these issues during recent elections given the Covid-19 precautionary measures, and different ways of ensuring voting at home. According to the Head of the Commission, these issues have also been discussed during the meeting of CEC.
President of Latvia stressed: ‘We must make sure Riga City Council elections meet highest standards, follow all latest health and safety recommendations, and broad voter participation is achieved.’ Egils Levits expressed his conviction that electronic electoral register must be introduced by next regular local elections in 2021 and political parties should allocate appropriate funding for these purposes. President of Latvia urged political parties to start discussing allocation of funding necessary to provide opportunity to vote at any polling station also during the Riga City Council snap elections as soon as possible.
President and the Head of the Commission also discussed long-term election policy. According to Egils Levits, ‘executive branch should become responsible for election management policy and appropriate funding for election arrangements, while CEC, who had this function before, should continue to ensure that elections are free’.