The draft law was supported by 82 votes to none.
New ballot papers.
The most significant change will be the new-look ballot papers.
Until now, the ballot papers had a diamond opposite the candidate's name, where a '+' could be ticked if the voter was particularly in favor of a candidate; the name and/or surname of a candidate could be crossed out if the voter did not support the candidate; or no marking at all could be done.
The new ballot papers will have two boxes opposite the candidate's name, for and against, colored green and red respectively. If a voter is particularly in favor of a candidate, the 'for' box should be ticked (this could be a cross, tick, shading, etc.), and if not in favor, the 'against' box should be ticked. An unaltered ballot paper can also be placed in the envelope.
The Central Election Commission explained to LSM.lv that the new ballot papers will allow candidates' names to be crossed out, but the "against" box must also be marked. If only the name is crossed out, it will not be considered.
The marks will be read by scanners, which will be able to correctly summarise them in the election results. At the same time, polling station staff will also make sure that the vote is correctly tabulated, Kristīne Saulīte, the head of the Central Election Commission, has previously stressed.
New opening hours
Local Council elections will be called much earlier - until now, they had to be announced no later than three months before polling day, but now they will be called 150 days ahead, which is about 5 months.
Unlike in previous elections, polling stations will now be open for five days during election week, instead of three days as before. The Parliament also confirmed the opening hours of polling stations on the previous voting days: on Monday they will be open from 5-8 pm, on Tuesday from 8-11 am, on Wednesday from 5-8 pm, on Thursday from 8-11 am and on Friday from 12-3 pm.
On the day of the municipal elections, polling stations will open at 8 am instead of 7 am, as has been the case until now, and will work until the usual time of 8 pm.
Postal voting
For voters abroad, the arrangements for postal voting will also change. The application for postal voting will be made no later than eight days before the election day (42 days until now) and the voter will submit the application for postal voting using the free electronic service available on the latvija.gov.lv portal or on the official website of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs. This was already the case in this year's European Parliament elections.
Thus, there will no longer be a possibility to send an application by e-mail or in writing to the Central Election Commission, as well as to send it by post or in person to the diplomatic or consular missions of Latvia.
