Aivars Endziņš

Who is Aivars Endziņš?

Aivars Endziņš is a Latvian lawyer and politician. He graduated from University of Latvia in 1968, in 1977 he attained candidate of legal sciences degree, but in 1997 he became Doctor of Jurisprudence. He has worked as a lecturer in University of Latvia and, later, in higher school of business "Turība". He was a member of Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1963 to 1990, before he became a member of Popular Front of Latvia and MP of Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia. He was a short time member of Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party, but then in 1993 became a member of Latvian Way. He was MP of 5th and of 6th Saeima, but resigned in 1996 when he became judge of the Constitutional Court of Latvia. He became the head of the Constitutional Court in 2000 and left this office in 2007. He was a presidential candidate in the Latvian presidential election of 2007, nominated by the Harmony Centre and also supported by the New Era Party and the political alliance For Human Rights in United Latvia. After a passionate debate over his membership of the Communist Party, which heated even more with the discovery that in the 1970s he had denied the occupation of Latvia, he lost the election to Valdis Zatlers.