RIGA, June 15 (LETA) - The party of politician Ainars Slesers, Latvia First (LPV), which has been elected to the Riga City Council, will appeal to the court against the decision of the Central Election Commission (CVK) to reject the party's complaint about the conduct of the elections in Riga, Slesers told a gathering of a majority of Russian speaking pensioners on Sunday at a demonstration on the non-recognition of the results of the municipal elections, LETA observed.

About 20 minutes before the gathering started, a small stage was set up at the foot of the Freedom Monument in Riga, from which Slesers later gave a 40-minute speech.

The gathering was previously expected to be attended by 100 participants, but around 300 turned up. Some of them - around 40 people - arrived about 15 minutes before the official start of the protest together with Slesers.

In his address, Slesers said that the last municipal elections "were the most unfair in the history of independent Latvia". He said that the government should have convened a meeting to decide that the votes should be counted by hand. This, in his view, did not happen because it was necessary to count the votes "correctly", not fairly. That is, to prevent' 'Slesers from coming to power", he argued.

In his address, Slesers was less critical of the elected Riga City Council, but the government led by Prime Minister Evika Silina (New Unity) earned a heavy dose of criticism. Slesers called on the protesters present to shout "The government must fall, the government must fall!", to which those present responded.

Slesers pointed out that although the CVK's decision would be appealed, he claimed that the judiciary in Latvia was not independent and he did not know how the court would rule in this case. That is why Slesers is ready to organize wider protests, calling for the next one on June 28 if the Silina government has not resigned by then. The protests will continue until that happens.

In the next parliamentary elections, in autumn of next year, Slesers said that he is ready to assume the role of prime minister. In his speech, Slesers also thanked Russian people for their votes in the elections, for which he received a big ovation. LETA observed that a large part of those present at the event were Russian-speaking pensioners.

As reported, Slesers, whose name has been involved in several corruption scandals in the past, including the so-called oligarch affair, was named as one of the country's three so-called oligarchs by former Latvian President Valdis Zatlers.