Latvia’s election commission removes three more candidates from parliamentary lists
Friday 31st July 2026 on 15:05 in
Latvia
Latvia’s Central Election Commission has removed three more candidates from the lists for the 15th Saeima elections, bringing the total number of excluded candidates to six, LSM reported, citing the LETA news agency.
This week, Elmārs Vestermanis was removed from the list of the Saskaņas centrs political alliance, Monta Krista Dervina from the Gobzema saraksts list, and Roberts Bērziņš from the Kurzeme list of Suverēnā vara and Apvienība jaunlatvieši.
Two of the candidates were excluded because of convictions for intentional criminal offences. The third was removed because they held an office incompatible with the position of a Saeima member.
Earlier, Riga City Council member Ēriks Stendzenieks of Latvia First was removed from a list, along with Jurijs Jesipenko of Saskaņas centrs and Renards Roze of the New Conservative Party.
The six excluded candidates include two from Saskaņas centrs, one from the New Conservative Party, one from Latvia First, one from the Gobzema saraksts and one from Suverēnā vara and Apvienība jaunlatvieši.
The commission said that three candidates had been excluded under Article 5, point 3, of the Saeima Election Law. The provision bars people convicted of intentional criminal offences from standing in parliamentary elections, except those who have been rehabilitated or whose convictions have been expunged or annulled.
One further candidate was excluded for failing to meet the citizenship requirement, another for failing to meet the age requirement, and another because they held an office incompatible with that of a Saeima member.
According to information obtained by LETA, Stendzenieks was caught driving with a blood alcohol level of 1.5 parts per thousand in April 2023. The prosecutor’s office sentenced him to 260 hours of community service and revoked his driving licence for five years. In January 2024, police caught him driving without a licence, and the prosecutor’s office fined him 2,800 euros. This is also confirmed by a publicly available anonymised decision from the prosecutor’s office.
Jesipenko was removed from the Riga electoral district list after the commission established that he was not a Latvian citizen. Roze was removed because he would not be at least 21 years old on election day.