C a Latvian parliamentary committee on Wednesday delayed a vote that would ban ex-KGB agents and former hardline communists from running in elections for the European Union's parliament.
According to lawmakers from two parties, the bill had more than enough legislative support to pass, but the parliament's legal committee decided to cancel the planned Thursday vote for at least a week at the behest of the country's justice minister.
"As far as I know, the vote was delayed so that the wording of the bill could be reworked," said lawmaker and former prime minister Guntars Krasts, who supports the bill. "Whether it will still have the support it needs later, we will have to wait and see."
The bill came under heavy criticism from the government's own human rights office and was likely to provoke anger among some in the current 626-member European Parliament, which includes several communists.
Liga Biksiniece, a lawyer in Latvia's human rights office, said Tuesday that restrictions on ex-KGB and ex-communists were justified in the 1990s on grounds they posed a danger to Latvian independence.
"But after 10 years, they are no longer a threat," she said. "So why not let them participate in elections and let the people decide?"
The European Court of Human Rights, already hearing a case on similar bans used in Latvian national elections, could force the country to scrap all such prohibitions. The court is expected to hand down its ruling in March.
The ban on ex-KGB and hardline communists from running for high office in Latvia was first approved in 1994, three years after Latvia regained independence amid the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The new ban, if approved, would last for 10 years.
Latvia, along with neighboring Estonia and Lithuania were occupied by the Red Army for 50 years, starting in 1940. The Soviet secret police, the KGB, arrested dissidents or even deported them to Siberia. During
the reign of Josef Stalin, thousands were also executed.
Latvia delays vote to ban ex-KGB, former communists... AP
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