Belarus parliament elections

Belarus MFA regrets OSCE assessment, sees it as politicized

Anatoly Glaz. An archive photo

MINSK, 19 November (BelTA) – Belarus demonstrated maximum transparency and invited a record high number of international observers to monitor the recent parliamentary elections, Anatoly Glaz, Head of the Information and Digital Diplomacy Office, Press Secretary of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement on the international assessment of the parliamentary elections in Belarus, BelTA has learned.

“Belarus has got familiar with the statements of the international observation missions following the parliamentary elections in Belarus. The statement of the European External Action Service has also been taken note of. In this connection we would like to remind everyone that there are no ideal election systems and one can find flaws in any election process in any country in the OSCE area,” the document says.

The statement also stresses that Belarus has shown maximum transparency and invited a record high number of international observers to monitor the elections. According to many of them, the election campaign was conducted in a calm, organized, open, transparent and competitive manner, in full compliance with the national legislation and international obligations of the country. That was confirmed, in particular, by the statements of the CIS and SCO missions.

“We regret that the OSCE mission, as in previous years, has failed to completely depart from politicized assessments and conclusions. We also believe that a personal bias and a subjective approach should not be at the heart of conclusions and assessments by international observers. What can we expect from the heads of the observation missions who speak negatively about Belarus and publish insulting articles about the country before coming to the country? This, by the way, is a serious question for the OSCE bodies that select the personnel,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed.

“We have repeatedly told our Western partners that we are ready for constructive criticism, but we will never accept baseless and total slander. Should we decide to improve our electoral procedures and legislation we will do it not on orders from someone but at the request of our society and in the evolutionary way. We hold elections for our country and people, not to please the external forces,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Belarus is ready to further develop constructive cooperation in the areas of mutual interest with all international partners, the statement says. Only dialogue and cooperation, not pressure, blackmail and sanctions will enable us to move forward across the issues that meet the interests of both Belarus and our partners.

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