Random selection for the National Defence Service

The National Defence Service (NDS) is a part of a comprehensive national defence system introduced to strengthen Latvia's defence capabilities. All the knowledge and skills acquired in the service will strengthen the main objective - a secure and independent Latvia.

On 1 December 2023, the application period for the July 2024 National Defence Service ended with 515 Latvian citizens volunteering, while the shortfall will be filled by a random selection (hereinafter "the selection"), which took place on 23 January 2024. The anonymised results of the selection can be found here.

What is random selection and what are the steps?

National Defence Service random selection is coordinated and managed by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Relevant MoD procedures for registration, surveying and recruitment of Latvian citizens eligible or volunteering for the NDS are stipulated by Cabinet of Minister Regulation 409 “Procedures for registration, surveying, selection and recruitment of Latvian citizens for state defence service, and requirements regarding skills and competences obtained through national defence military service” of 13 July 2023.

Initial selection focuses on NDS volunteers. Then criteria for random selection described in the aforementioned Cabinet of Minister Regulation 409 of 13 July 2023 are applied to identify the remaining troops in the pool of eligible candidates.

According to Article 6 of the National Defence Service Law, after the determinations described in the Article 8 and Article 9 of the Law, NDS recruitment lists are compiled by National Defence Service Department of the Ministry of Defence (NDSD), which verifies these lists against public registers:

Office of Citizenship and Migration Register of Natural Persons, which contains data about individuals eligible for NDS under the Article 2.2 of the Law;
MoD Resource Management System, which contains data about all individuals who have served at least 11 consecutive months as active duty troops;
Penal Register of the Ministry of Interior, which contains data about all convictions;
State Education Information System of the Ministry of Education and Science, which contains population education data;
Disability Information System of State Medical Commission for the Assessment of Health Condition and Working Ability, which contains medical examination records;
The last step of the verification includes identifying of uniformed officers of institutions/agencies under the Ministry of Interior or the National Prison Administration who have been employed at least two years.

Verification and evaluation of data pertaining to individuals eligible for NDS is completed by select number of MoD NDSD employees who strictly follow the four-eyes principle.
Recruitment lists are then used during the random selection draw.

Who will be invited to the observation?

Transparency will be provided by an ad hoc committee of observers comprised of department employees from MoD (except NDSD staff) who will ensure the legitimacy and due diligence of the process.

Mass media, NGOs and members of public are welcome to join them.

What will be the parameters of selection?

It is a random selection and unique identifiers will be assigned to each recruit registering in respective municipality. Minimum selection threshold is one person per municipality, unless municipality has no eligible recruits in its territory who could enter the random selection.

These unique identifiers are randomly generated by special software. This software uses the prepared recruitment lists of eligible Latvian citizens to generate random sequence of numbers, which are then stored in selection file. Neither hardware nor software will be linked online to avoid any tampering.

When and how will recruits be notified? What is the notification period?

Recruits selected for NDS through random selection will receive approved selection results (notification), confirming the draft and medical examination, on their official e-mail address, or to registered home address, no later than 2 weeks after the draw.

In case of inactive e-mail address, notice will be sent to home address in a registered letter.

!NB!

According to Article 5.1.5 of the Law on the Official Electronic Address, all Latvian male citizens aged 18 to 27 must use the official e-mail address, except for the person:

Who receives services at a long-term social care and social rehabilitation institution which is registered in the register of social service providers.
Who has left the long-term social care and social rehabilitation institution which is registered in the register of social service providers in order to receive social care and social rehabilitation services at the place of residence.
Who receives the services of a group house registered in the register of social service providers.
For whom Group I disability has been determined.

What do I do when I receive the notice?

Recruits are required to fill out the application form on integrated recruitment platform www.klustikaravirs.lv no later than 5 days from receiving the NDS draft notice,
Recruits are required to undergo medical examination scheduled by the MoD at the specified location. Medical examination is conducted at the National Armed Forces Support Command Medical Support Centre at 6 C Ezermalas Street, Riga.
Prior to medical examination, recruits are required to obtain form 027/u from their General practitioner.
Based on the results of medical examination and other information about the NDS eligibility of the potential recruit, MoD NDSD shall assess the candidate and determine whether according to the NDS Law candidate should be:

      a) DRAFTED – indicating time and place where to report for duty (for 2024/2 draft: Ādaži, SzS MKBDE, 19.07.2024, 09:00-11:00);
      b) POSTPONE – indicating reasons and date of postponement;
      c) REJECT – because of ineligibility for service (name deleted from NDS records).

5. MoD NDSD shall communicate its decision to recruits via official e-mail or in a registered letter through mail.