RIGA — It appears a smattering of candidates running in Latvia’s fall parliamentary elections include former criminals and KGB collaborators.

The country’s Central Election Commission decided Wednesday to bar five candidates from running cue to their criminal past, including Oļegs Posadkovs and Sergejs Špaks of the pro-Russian integration For Human Rights In United Latvia party, Sergejs Simčaks and Zigfrids Laicans of the party Made In Latvia, and Andris Grins of the Christian Democratic Union party.

Meanwhile the Totalitarian Legacy Documentation Center announced Wednesday that seven candidates are either former KGB agents or collaborators. The KGB was the repressive Soviet agency responsible for surveillance of the country’s citizens and intelligence gathering under the totalitarian regime.

The center alleges that Ēriks Didrihsons of the pro-Russian integration Harmony Center, as well as Aivars Saliņš of For a Presidential Republic and Ēriks Tirums of the People’s Control party may have collaborated with the KGB and that Arvīds Ulme of the Union of Greens and Farmers, Roberts Gobziņš  of the Last Party, and Aivars Akis and Rolands Zagorskis of Daugava For Latvia.

While former KGB agents and collaborators are not barred from running in Latvian elections — a touchy issue, as some collaborators worked for the KGB under threat and duress — they are required to inform voters of this, and so far none of the seven have done so.

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