Latvia replaces polling station staff over security risks — LSM English
In Latvia’s eastern regions, some polling station staff were urgently replaced ahead of the elections to the 15th Saeima due to security risks. As LSM English reports, Latvia’s State Security Service screened a total of 6,000 polling station staff across the country.
Replacements in Daugavpils and Krāslava
In Daugavpils, where 29 polling stations are due to open for the elections, the election commission ended cooperation with more than 20 staff members and found replacements for them, according to the LSM Latgale newsroom. The chair of the city election commission, Ruta Velikā, neither confirmed nor denied the information, citing restricted access to information.
According to her, the Central Election Commission reported the need to take appropriate measures. Velikā noted that the teams at all polling stations had already been fully staffed, including by recruiting people who had previously worked in such positions.
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In Krāslava Municipality, 140 people will work at 26 polling stations. The composition of the teams was approved back in March, but on September 18 the commission chair received an order to change it. Zane Ločmele, chair of the Krāslava Municipal Election Commission, said that new staff were found within a week by contacting people who had applied earlier.
Screening of six thousand staff members
Central Election Commission chair Māris Zviedris said that security service screening of polling station staff is a routine procedure. He added that the commission has no information about problems with staffing polling stations in municipalities, although replacing personnel a week before voting is more difficult.
Latvia’s State Security Service said that the identified risk factors included staff travel to Russia — the aggressor state — and Belarus after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as the dissemination of pro-Kremlin messages. The Central Election Commission did not disclose the number of people replaced following decisions by security agencies.
