Nikolai Kabanov

The 11th Saeima member from Harmony Center (HC) Nikolai Kabanov believes that Latvia country is suffering from a serious deficit of democracy. He is one of the few officials who have admitted having signed for Russian being granted the status of an official language in Latvia.

Asked to comment on the national association All for Latvia!-TB/LNNK’s attempts to find out all the parliamentarians who have signed for the constitutional amendments, he told BNN that the initiative goes against the fundamentals of a rule of law country.

“It’s impossible to identify each and every person out of all the 80 000 thousand of citizens that have already signed. The names would have to be “pulled out” from all the registers and it would take months,” he says.

However, another Saeima member from HC – Sergei Dolgopolov holds a different view. He stresses that the national association has every right to find out which parliamentarians exactly have signed.

The national association is set to turn to the Mandate, Ethics and Submissions Committee, which, according to the Latvian legislation, is righteous to ask the Central Election Commission for all the names of the deputies signing for the referendum on Russian.

Leader of the National Association Raivis Dzintars believes that Kabanov has violated the solemn oath to strengthen sovereignty of Lativa and the Latvian language as the one and only state language.

“Each and every persons’ political standpoint is his own business. Parliamentarians are human beings just like everyone else. I have admitted signing. If people do not admit it, it is their choice,” Kabanov says.

The Saeima member hopes that also his fellow parliamentarians have signed, stressing that no law amendments that have taken place in a democratic manner can be condemned.

Ref: 104.105.105.331