All About Latvia

Voter Bribery

Mar 14

AleksUncategorized 1 Comment

We believe it’s worth introducing the English-speaking blogosphere to the latest Latvian political scandal, especially in lieu of the upcoming parliamentary elections this October.

With that in mind, here’s a little explanation of the background to the Latvia’s screwed up political process:

Under Latvia’s laws, voters cast votes for a party, not an individual. On the national level parties with majority of votes form a coalition government. That also holds true on the local level. Based on the portion of votes, a party wins a certain numbers of seats on a city council. A city mayor is elected by a city council formed by those who received a certain number of votes in the elections.

The last municipal elections (the elections in question) were held last March. The Central Election Commission ordered to hold another round of elections in two cities because of the alleged impropieties, which included bribery of voters. In a small town of Jurmala, near the capital city of Riga, each party received mainly one seat on the council. Only Jaunais Laiks received three; PCTVL and LNNK/TB received two each.

Here are the main characters of the political play:

* Juris Hlevickis – former mayor of a resort city, a member of Latvijas Pirma Partija (or Latvia’s First Party) who was being considered for a mayor of a city of Jurmala, not far away from the capital city of Riga.

* Germans Miluss – a Latvian businessman. He was the president of Mikas company which was the official representative of BMW in Latvia. In 2001, according to fakti.lv, Igors Kobliecs accused him of attempt to murder. As a result, in a separate case, the court awarded Miluss 500,000 lats in damages. For the purposes of this story Miluss was accused of buying votes on the Jurmala City Council to elect Hlevickis as the mayor.

* Ainars Slesers – Latvia’s current transportation minister, a former deputy prime minister, who at one point, was displeased that the George Soros Foundation spreads its anti-corruption web in Latvia.

* Andris Skele – the founder of Latvijas Tautas Partija, or Latvia’s People’s Party. He is a former prime minister. Current Prime Minister, Aigars Kalvitis, is a member of his party.

During the last few months, it has been reported that Germans Miluss bought votes to elect Juris Hlevickis as the mayor of Jurmala. Did Miluss work for himself or for someone else? The prosecutor’s office closed the case against any other high-level politician due to the lack of evidence.

On Sunday night, De Facto, a Latvian Public Television (Latvijas Televizija) political show, droped a political bomb (The video is available here). The journalists reported that Ainars Slesers and Andris Skele knew that votes were being bought in the Jurmala elections. TV played tapes of phone conversations between Miluss and Hlevickis; Miluss and Slesers; Miluss and Skele.

The question that made the Diena headline this morning is a quote from the conversation, when two men were discussing which of member would be a deputy: “Kurs no viniem lielaks kretins?” (“Which one of them is the biggest cretin?”)

It turned out that the group bribed Irmars Ancans who took € 20,000. And then voted against the “correct” candidate.

The journalists invited Slesers to explain his point of view. Clumsily. He called it a partisan issue, an attack by Jaunais Laiks on his party and said that it is up to the courts to decide whether he was involved.

“You’re not judges, you’re not prosecutors, and here on Latvian Public TV, you must remain objective,” he told the journalists. He added he would answer all questions when the prosecutor’s office will ask them. It’s a little known fact in Latvia that politicians serve the people. It’s little known, because it’s not true.

Today’s newspaper Diena devoted most of its local coverage of this scandal.

LTV said that it obtained the audio tape by legal means.

The court hearing is scheduled for May 15.

The government, of course, is suddenly concerned about privacy, rather than the actual essence of the scandal. Former Prime Minister, Indulis Emsiswants to speak with the bureau to protect constitution in order to prevent wiretapping by non-authorized parties.

Having said that, it’s time for some accountability from the country’s politicians. It’s time to change the political process to allow for accountability and responsibility. It’s time to hold public officials accountable for their corruption and lack of respect for the very people who elected them. It’s time for change.

Ainars Slesers should resign from the government and quit participating in the political process. It’s the right thing to do as it is the standard in all democratic countries.

Let me say the same in Latvian: Satiksmes ministram Ainaram Sleseram jaatkapjas no ministra amata.

Citizenship Laws Explained

Mar 04

AleksUncategorized 10 Comments

Originally posted at Nouvelleurope, where an interesting debate was taking place back in 2006. Why not post it here as well with some links and corrections:

The citizenship laws of Latvia often are confusing for outsiders. Two German researchers sent me an e-mail recently asking an important question in Latvian politics today: what is the difference between a Russian and a Latvian; a citizen and a non-citizen in Latvia.

To begin understanding the internal situation in Latvia, let’s look briefly at the historical context. In August 1940, Latvia was annexed into the Soviet Union. Following the German occupation in 1941 to 1944, Latvia was once again occupied by Soviet forces until 1990. In May 1990, Latvian government declared its independence from the Soviet Union. In 1991, Latvian residents went to the polls to express their opinion regarding Latvia as an independent democratic country. The overwhelming majority of the residents voted in favor of the independence. Later that same year, Latvia’s Supreme Soviet, a legislative body at the time, adopted a law restoring the citizenship of those who were citizens of Latvia before the Soviet occupation of 1940.

In 1994, the law on citizenship was adopted by the government. Under the law, those whose ancestors lived in Latvia at the time of it occupation in 1940 qualified for the automatic Latvian citizenship. The new independent republic, the government said, was the extension of the republic that lost its independence in 1940, therefore any residents who were not citizens of the country at the time of the annexation did not qualify for the new citizenship.

Instead, they were given a status of a non-citizen. The law about non-citizens was adopted in 1995.

It is not fair to distinguish between Russians and Latvians and non-citizens and citizens as equal division in Latvia. Majority of non-citizens were Soviet engineers, bureaucrats, laborers and others who relocated to Latvia to boost its industry in the plan economy. They were not necessarily ethnic Russians. In the Soviet Union, specialists from other Soviet republics were transferred or relocated to Latvia. In 1994, they and their children who were left without citizenship.

One often wondered why Latvia needed a textile factory, for example, if Latvia’s climate was not suitable for cotton.

In the Soviet economy, new labor force was eventually to become a majority. It would mean than ethnic Latvians would outnumber ethnic non-Latvians, if the trend continued.

Non-citizens are not eligible to vote in any elections on the national or a local level. They’re not eligible to travel in the EU as freely as the Latvian citizens. Nor can they own some kinds of property.

Latvian non-citizens feel betrayed by the government. Some say, back in 1991, the ruling national party promised citizenship to all residents regardless of their nationality or the date of arrival. Those people push for easing up of the citizenship laws to grant citizenship to some non-citizens, as it is theirs by right, so they say.

Eventually, the Latvian government allowed non-citizens to naturalize. Through naturalization process, non-citizens may obtain the same rights as citizens.