RIGA, June 11 (LETA) - The decision of the Minister of Smart Administration and Regional Development Inga Berzina (New Unity) to resign from her post is brave and respectable one, and it means that the Minister is not shying away from taking political responsibility, Harijs Rokpelnis, head of the ZZS Saeima faction, commented to LETA.

He stressed that the National Digital Development Agency (NDDA) is under the Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development and was supposed to oversee the agency's competence in developing and operating the election system.

ZZS thanks the Minister for her contribution to the work of the Government and calls on New Unity to nominate a candidate for the post of Minister of Smart Administration and Regional Development so that work, including on improvements to the voting system, can continue under the Minister's leadership.

As reported, Berzina announced her resignation as Smart Administration and Regional Development Minister on Wednesday by tendering resignation to Prime Minister Evika Silina (New Unity), who accepted it.

Silina announced Berzina's decision to the media following a meeting with President Edgars Rinkevics.

The prime minister noted that Berzina had been the first to take active steps to address the issues that arose in the electoral process and to suspend the head of the State Digital Development Agency (VDAA). According to Silina, the minister also immediately started to clarify the causes of the problems with the electronic vote registration and counting system.

For Silina, the most important thing now is to make sure that everything is in perfect order and that this situation does not happen again in the parliamentary elections, which will take place in the fall of 2026.

The prime minister stressed that Berzina was an experienced politician and had taken this step because she was responsible for the technical side of the electoral process, including the VDAA. Silina also asked to wait for Berzina's official comment.

Silina repeatedly expressed her gratitude to all those who took part in the elections and reiterated that the performance of the Central Election Commission (CEC) during the elections was not good enough and therefore she also appreciates the resignation of the Central Election Commission's Chair Kristine Saulite. The prime minister hopes that other people involved in the process will also assess their responsibility.

After leaving her ministerial post, Berzina will have the opportunity to become an MP, as she was elected to the 14th Saeima in the last parliamentary elections. If Berzina decides to take her mandate, Girts Valdis Kristovskis (New Unity) will lose her seat in the Saeima.

The prime minister indicated that it is still too early to talk about picking a candidate for the next smart administration and regional development minister. That decision will be taken once Berzina has resigned. "We will decide the matter with the New Unity board and the coalition," Silina said, adding that Berzina must be given time to formally resign.

As reported, vote counting following last weekend's municipal elections in Latvia was marred by technical glitches, which were reported in the electoral system already during early voting.

At the moment, an inter-institutional task force has not launched a probe into the problems with the vote counting, as it initially needs to gather all the necessary and available information on what happened, Raivis Kronbergs, director of the State Chancellery, told members of the press on Monday.

He said that until last week, there was "confidence" that everything would work properly because there were no indications that anything could go wrong. "If we had not been sure of that, we would certainly have taken decisions sooner," he added, reiterating that there were no indications that the system's capacity would prove insufficient.