Presidential election 2015 in Belarus

MINSK, 9 September (BelTA) – The Belarus Central Election Commission hosted a meeting between the head of the PACE pre-electoral delegation, Chairwoman of the Central Election Commission Lidia Yermoshina and Secretary General of the commission Nikolai Lozovik on 9 September, BelTA learned from the CEC Secretary.

Nikolai Lozovik said that the meeting was a meaningful conversation.

"Our guests were interested in the structure of the Central Election Commission, its status and the authorities,” Nikolai Lozovik said. The observers asked what organizational and legal capacity the Commission has to ensure the legitimacy of the electoral process. "They also raised the issue of ensuring equal rights of all participants of the electoral process," said Nikolai Lozovik.

Lidia Yermoshina briefed the delegation on how the current campaign is going, the main provisions of the electoral legislation. "The guests asked questions about the procedures of nominating the candidates, collecting and verifying signatures,” Nikolai Lozovik informed. In addition, the PACE representatives asked whether the population gets the full information about the election, from what sources, and inquired about the ways the information about the election is conveyed in the country.

The participants of the meeting discussed the novelties in the current campaign, not only legislative but also purely technical, for example, the use of transparent ballot boxes. They talked about the specifics of the vote beyond Belarus.

The observers also studied in detail the voting procedure and asked questions about voter lists, mechanisms to avoid double voting.

The pre-electoral delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) visiting the Republic of Belarus is led by Reha Denemec and includes PACE rapporteur on the situation in Belarus Andrea Rigoni (Italy), Jonas Gunnarsson (Sweden), Andrej Hunko (Germany), and Sonia Sirtori Milner, the Head of the Office of the PACE Secretary General.