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Viewing cable 06RIGA584, PEOPLE'S PARTY EMBROILED IN THIRD-PARTY CAMPAIGN AD

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06RIGA584 2006-07-24 06:22 2011-08-25 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Riga
VZCZCXRO8846
RR RUEHAST
DE RUEHRA #0584 2050622
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 240622Z JUL 06
FM AMEMBASSY RIGA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3177
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS RIGA 000584 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM LG
SUBJECT: PEOPLE'S PARTY EMBROILED IN THIRD-PARTY CAMPAIGN AD 
CONTROVERSY 
 
Ref: Riga 527 
 
1. SUMMARY.  The People's Party, the senior partner in 
Latvia's minority coalition government, has come under the 
scrutiny of the press and the Anti-Corruption Bureau (KNAB) 
over a series of TV commercials that praise the party's 
cabinet ministers. The clips do not make reference to the 
elections or the party and contain no disclosure about who 
paid for them.  The People's Party has so far been evasive 
about whether it is behind the clips. However, the ads have 
been placed by an obscure NGO whose founders include Prime 
Minister Aigars Kalvitis' (People's Party) chief of staff 
Jurgis Liepnieks. If the KNAB determines that the People's 
Party has been directly involved in funding the ads, it may 
face monetary penalties.  As a young democracy, Latvia is 
trying to balance limits on campaign financing and spending 
with freedom of speech. END SUMARY. 
 
2.  The Anti-Corruption Bureau is looking into ads being 
broadcast on the Latvian TV over the past few weeks praising 
several People's Party ministers, including Prime Minister 
Aigars Kalvitis. The clips do not indicate who paid for 
them, nor do they include specific electoral references such 
as "vote for", "support", etc. The People's Party has 
declined to comment on whether the ads are part of their 
election campaign. However, the ads have been placed by an 
NGO called "Society for the Freedom of Speech" whose 
founders include Prime Minister Kalvitis' chief of staff 
Jurgis Liepnieks (reftel). Some of the cultural workers 
praising Culture Minister Helena Demakova and doctors 
commending the work of Health Minister Gundars Berzins have 
said that they were approached with a request to express 
their honest opinion about the ministers. The participants 
deny that they were given any prepared scripts, or that they 
knew of any political context of the request. Liepnieks told 
Latvian TV that there were "precious few positive ads in 
Latvia and we decided to fill the gap." 
 
3.  The current law on campaign financing sets strict limits 
on how much money the parties can spend during the election 
campaign.  However, the law only applies to direct spending 
by political parties.  One of the editors of Diena, a 
centrist paper that has taken the lead in reporting on this 
story, told the Ambassador that they felt it was important 
to try to get the Latvian public energized in opposition to 
efforts to circumvent the law.  Diena also believes that 
Liepnieks is directly transferring People's Party funds to 
the NGO for these ads in an effort to get around the law. 
If the KNAB can find evidence of this, the party could be 
subject to a fine as well as required to pay to the State an 
amount equal to what they spent over the allowable limit. 
If a party fails to pay the stipulated sum within thirty 
days, or if a party is a repeat offender, the KNAB has the 
authority to initiate the suspension of the party through 
the Latvian courts.  Though the KNAB has been successful in 
using this legislation against smaller parties, it has not 
been tried against the larger political parties. 
 
4. Comment: Latvia's young democracy has struggled with the 
influence of money in politics since the restoration of 
independence in 1991.  Many of the parties here are 
controlled by wealthy individuals to secure and advance 
their personal political agendas and campaigns here rely 
heavily on television advertising.  The campaign finance law 
attempted to control how much parties could spend, but not 
how much they could raise.  As in the U.S., there are 
questions here about how restrictions on campaign finance 
should be balanced against constitutional guarantees of 
freedom of speech.  Liepnieks even cited several U.S. 
examples to defend the ads, while still not conceding that 
they were paid for by the party.  There is no question that 
parties here will try many creative methods to get around 
the campaign finance law in advance of the October 7 ballot, 
much as soft money and 527's have played in U.S. elections. 
However, this case would be especially concerning if party 
funds were directly transferred for these ads in a blatant 
attempt to get around the law.  Even if the KNAB can prove 
that and secure a court verdict, the financial penalty to 
the party would be far outweighed by what they see as the 
positive message to voters about their ministers' 
performance in office.  The most interesting aspect about 
this case is how little the average Latvian seems to care, 
seemingly expecting that shady financing will be an 
inevitable part of the campaign. END COMMENT. 
BAILEY