Presidential election 2015 in Belarus

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, which information the CIS observers quoted, as of 15 September the prosecution service received 22 complaints from citizens regarding the fulfillment of election laws.

The report reads that only once government officials have failed to look into the complaint about a violation of electoral laws on time.

Apart from that, criminal proceedings have been launched against a person, who has damaged an information stand during a rally held to collect voter signatures. That person has also inflicted bodily injuries upon a member of the initiative group.

According to the Supreme Court, as of 15 September Belarusian courts received a total of 37 petitions. The Supreme Court also received six complaints regarding the Central Election Commission’s decision to deny registration of initiative groups. Three petitions were denied the commencement of action since the petitioners had no right to petition the court. The court also ruled to dismiss three more petitions. The Supreme Court also ruled to dismiss the other petitions because the number of people in the initiative groups was below 100.

Oblast courts and district courts received 12 petitions against decisions concerning the formation of territorial election commissions. District courts received 19 petitions like that.

The CEC also notified that from 30 June through 1 September 2015 the Central Election Commission received 133 petitions. As of 1 September territorial election commissions received 38 petitions from citizens.

An absolute majority of the petitions filed with the Central Election Commission have been reviewed, the report reads.

Six petitions concerning actions of the initiative groups, which have been established to nominate presidential candidates, were forwarded to the relevant territorial commissions for the sake of verifying the circumstances and enforcing control over the observation of laws on collecting signatures.

According to the report, while visiting territorial and precinct election commissions the CIS observers noted the professionalism of members of the commissions, proper document processing. Members of the CIS mission were also given prompt access to all the documents concerning the election process.