RIGA, July 30 (LETA) - Each municipality is entitled to adjust its governance model and choose the number of deputy chairpersons and advisors within the limits of the law, but the responsibility for these decisions will be assessed by the voter, said Raimonds Cudars (New Unity), Minister of Smart Administration and Regional Development, in an interview with TV3 this morning.

He was asked to comment on the issue of the number of deputy chairpersons and advisors that council chairpersons are entitled to, which was raised after the municipal elections at the beginning of the summer.

Cudars explained that each municipality, taking into account its size, its activities and its policy priorities, determines its own governance structure, including committees, their chairpersons and also deputy chairpersons.

The Minister added that the proportion of the municipal budget allocated to administration should normally be below 10 percent, which would indicate an adequate level of financial resources spent on administration.

"At the moment, we have the Local Government Law which does not specify the number of deputies, the number of committees and the exact competence of these committees. All this is up to the council as an elected body according to its political preferences," Cudars explained, adding that, for example, executive committees were regulated much more strictly in Soviet times.

"Here, however, I would like the residents themselves to judge each case on its own merits," the minister summarized, noting that one of the fundamental principles of local government is to respect the will expressed in elections.

Asked whether the Saeima might reassess these regulations in the near future, the politician replied that it would do so, but that it should also take into account higher democratic laws and regulations, which grant municipalities a kind of sovereignty and the right to determine the order of things within their own territory.

Cudars added that the review of these laws is always a very sensitive issue, as it concerns the basic principles of democracy.