We will definitely not step on the rake again - new head of Central Election Commission

Following the IT problems in the municipal elections in early June, Smart Administration and Regional Development Minister Inga Berzina (New Unity) and Chairwoman of the Central Election Commission (CVK) Kristine Saulite resigned, while the Director of the State Digital Development Agency Jorens Liopa was suspended from his post and disciplinary proceedings were initiated against him. The Saeima almost unanimously elected the current head of the Riga Election Commission, Maris Zviedris, the new Chairman of the CVK, who will take up his new post on July 30. In an interview with LETA, Zviedris promised that the CVK would not step on the same rake again under his leadership. Among other things, his priority will be to ensure vertical communication with local election commissions, while a clear answer is expected from IT system developers by October on which systems will be available for the parliamentary elections in a year's time. If there is no certainty, then they will not be used in the elections.

You recently met with new Smart Administration and Regional Development Minister Raimonds Cudars (New Unity), and it was announced that decisions on the Saeima election process and the information technology systems that will be used in it have to be made by October this year. Can you tell us more about this?

The deadline is indeed October, because that is a year before the next elections, so that the public and we ourselves understand how everything will be done. October is also a signal for the electoral commissions, which will be re-elected in the coming months. The people who serve on them have quite a big decision to make about whether to stand for the next term at all. To be honest, when the horror [of the municipal elections] happened, you could pretty much hear: "No more!" I myself was wondering what to do next. Now life has turned out in such a way that I have to patch the hole myself. I hope that, by sending a clear signal about October, people will decide to stand for election commissions after all, and that the bitterness that has remained after these elections will be gone. That is why I do not want to see the time line clearly.

The minister also said that the results of the probe on what really happened and what caused the problems with the IT systems during the municipal elections will be known within a month. I assume that the answer will certainly not be as simple and straightforward as the public and the media might expect. It is certainly a complex issue. Why am I fairly certain about this? First of all, it is not just one IT system, there are several, and there were things that worked well, there were things that worked poorly, there were things that hardly worked at all. There were problems that were fixed in the process, there were problems that were not fixed. So, it is clear that there will probably not be a simple answer as to where the fault is, it will be a complex issue. Of course, the IT people will be interested in the technical details of why something did not work, but in general people are interested in whether or not they will have to count the votes by hand in the next elections.

Do you have an answer as to how IT systems could be overloaded in municipal elections when it is clearly known how many registered voters and polling stations there are in Latvia?

I still do not have an answer to this question. I am, of course, not that familiar with these IT systems. Perhaps something was not thought out, but I can assure you that the election commissions were not asked anything either. I think the biggest problem was that there really was a lack of vertical communication down to the city and county election commissions. We asked, have you taken this and that into account? But everybody was so arrogant and such great experts that they knew better. And here we are.

In any case, under my leadership, we will certainly not step on that rake again! As I said, if there are any concerns, we will listen to them, we will look into them and we will bring in the experts.

At the same time, I am not saying today that we count the results of the parliamentary elections by hand and forget about the IT systems that did not work as they should. The state has invested enough money in these systems, and it is therefore not economical to simply put them aside. Especially when a large number of experts say that it is fixable. So why not do it?

As the new head of the CVK, what do you think of the numerous inter-institutional cooperation groups? There were several of them before the municipal elections, and afterwards everyone shrugged their shoulders and said they had no idea that this would be the outcome. What is the point of them, then?

This is not my first day in local government and working with politicians. There has to be an exchange of information at horizontal level. If you are asking how meaningful these working groups are, this really should be discussed. That is why I also mentioned that vertical exchanges are also important, and I am committed to maintaining and listening to these vertical exchanges with the municipal electoral commissions.

I have not participated in the working groups so far, so I cannot fully answer the question of how meaningful they are, but I hope that people do not want to waste their time. The biggest problem in the past was probably that people in these working groups were not at all aware of what the problems were, because there was no information from below.

Former CVK chairwoman Kristine Saulite was accused of poor process management. What will you change in terms of process management, besides the already mentioned much more active communication with local election commissions?

I will take office on July 30, and before that I would not like to assess the internal processes of the CVK. However, what I can say, having worked together for several years, is that the working atmosphere in the CVK is, in my view, should be somewhat changed. I like to discuss issues in a collegial way and understand needs. At the moment, it is easy for me to say that. Maybe if you ask me this question in the autumn, I will be able to answer more precisely.

What should be changed in the CVK communication with the public and the media?

I will certainly be open and receptive. I have not refused to speak to any media so far, although, to be honest, at one point during the elections it was very difficult.

Any process needs to be explained to the public quickly. There should not be this vacuum of information, because the public then makes its own assumptions about what has happened. Similarly, all things must be told as they are, because the electoral process must be completely transparent so that no one has any shadow of suspicion. Our enemies across the border are just waiting for this to question any process.

Mistakes can be made in any job, but if a mistake is made, it must be admitted and there must be a clear plan of action as to what we do next.

You were the only candidate for the post of the CVK chairman. How can you explain this? Were other potential candidates scared when they saw how the local elections went?

I will be honest with you, when I agreed to run for the post, I had a lot of second thoughts. If I had been offered it at the beginning of June, I would have categorically said "No way!"

First of all, it is a huge reputational risk. Let us look at what has happened to all the previous heads of the CVK. Even if I managed to "walk away" from this job with completely dry feet. The risk is great and I am aware of it.

Second, if we think about why there were not many candidates, it is also the relationship between remuneration and responsibility. I am not asking anyone to reconsider their pay, and I have worked for the election commission for relatively modest pay before. But I assume that there were people for whom this was the decisive issue as to why they did not agree to run for the post. In my case, remuneration is not the main motive. My goal is to manage the electoral process well. You are not going to make all the money in the world anyway and, as they say, if you do your job well and with passion, the money will come.

I should also mention that the next elections are a very short time away - just over a year - and there have been huge problems. Who needs that? I would have been really happy if there had been a good candidate, and I would have been very happy to continue to run the Riga Election Commission.

You have been a member of the National Alliance for many years. How will you ensure political neutrality as the head of the CVK?

Yes, I have, but now I am no longer a member of any political party.

When I started to head the Riga Election Commission, there was no condition that it had to have a representative from every party represented in the Riga City Council. Some municipal election commissions had it, others did not. It is not a bad thing that the election commissions have so-called "non-partisan" employees, because they often have the most experience. Nor would it be right if, for example, an experienced polling station manager could not get a job on a local election commission simply because he is not a member of a political party. However, I once proposed that there should be a representative of each political party on the election commission. The rationale was precisely to make absolutely sure that the election commission was politically neutral, because political rivals would certainly not be allowed to do things that were in the interests of one party or the other. So, I do not think that I would have a problem with respecting political neutrality.

This time, all polling stations were open for a full week before the local elections. According to many experts, this was one of the reasons that boosted turnout compared to previous municipal elections. On the other hand, it was a greater strain on the election commissions. Do you think this should continue, or is there a need for change?

I think it should be maintained.

However, it is absolutely right about the additional workload for polling station staff. And, as I said, if the law stipulated that the basic workplace retained its salary during the election week and people did not have to take time off work to work at the polling station, that would solve a lot of things.

This is an issue that should be addressed, because the fact that all polling stations are open during the week is very convenient for voters, and advance voting is used more and more in every election.

What is the experience of other countries? Are there other things that could be done to increase voter turnout?

There are also countries that use either the carrot or the stick. The carrot in this case is, for example, some tax incentives for participation in elections. The stick principle is that participation in elections is made compulsory, and non-participation can be punished - not heavily, but still punished. Can this help? To some extent yes, but I would certainly not be in favor of punishment. I would support motivation if that can help. In the current situation, where belts have to be tightened and budget spending has to be cut in many sectors, it might not be popular to talk about it, but in the long term, why not? However, surely this should also be preceded by a study of turnout figures in those countries where such a thing is practiced.

I am definitely in favor of thinking about how to increase turnout in elections, and so far the thinking has been about how to make the electoral process more convenient for voters. For example, in Riga, we have already found the opportunity to have 12 polling stations in shopping centers, the number of wheelchair-accessible polling stations has been increased, and this is also popular with parents with small children, and there are more polling stations on the ground floors of buildings to make it easier for senior citizens. We will continue all this and if there are good suggestions on how to further improve convenience with reasonable use of resources, the CVK will certainly welcome them.

What are your forecasts for voter turnout in the Saeima elections? Could the fact that advance voting will take place in all polling stations increase turnout, as in local elections?

I would like to be optimistic about this. I think that having all the polling stations open could increase turnout because it means that the polling stations are more accessible.

What else should the CVK do in the long term?

The first test will be the parliamentary elections.

But if we are talking about the longer term, then of course digital tools will increasingly come into our lives and we need to introduce them gradually. So far, we have been surprised and we have run too fast, which shows that in the election process, it has to be done gradually, to make sure that everything works as it should. But digital solutions will have to be integrated into the election process. We can do as we have done in the past, but everyone still expects development and progress. It will be challenging.

In this geopolitical situation, the potential for external interference in the electoral process is also an issue. Is there a clear algorithm for dealing with concerns about this?

There is very close cooperation with the security authorities in the elections. The risk of threats can never be ruled out, but so far there have been no major cases. Of course, it is very difficult to answer this question without specific examples, but if we are talking in general terms, I know that many people talk about fully electronic elections, but precisely from the point of view of risks, there is nothing more secure than paper ballot slips at the moment. With the risks of interference, we are pushing back the potential development leap towards electronic elections. In this geopolitical situation, however, the risks are too high. At the moment, all the ballot slips have been accounted for. Can anyone guarantee that your electronically cast vote will not be affected, altered? I suspect that no system maintainer is prepared to give such guarantees right now.