Belarus parliament elections

“I’ve personally visited quite many polling stations. My colleagues told me that the readiness of the polling stations in Belarus for the launch of the voting process is high. Everywhere we’ve been we saw good knowledge of election regulations in members of the commissions and other participants of the election process. They know what they have to do in various situations and how they should help voters once they come to the polls,” said Sergei Lebedev.

Sergei Lebedev specified that at this stage of the election campaign the CIS observers pay attention primarily to the readiness of district election commissions and the readiness of polling station election commissions to welcome voters because early voting will begin on 6 September. According to Sergei Lebedev, the CIS observers were pleased to see rehearsals of the voting process at polling stations. During the rehearsals some commission members acted as voters and even asked provoking questions. Their colleagues gave answers in return. “One can say they are highly ready for voting judging by how the process went,” said the head of the CIS observer mission.

Sergei Lebedev also noted that visual propaganda is present in full at polling stations. In his words, the intensity of competition for parliamentary seats grows stronger and stronger. Respectively the amount of work that observers do grows, too. According to the source, CIS observers work in all regions of the country. “Meetings take place every day. I take a close interest in speeches by candidates in mass media. Those, who want to win the elections and win voters’ hearts, work harder. I am convinced that the worthiest will win in this fair fight,” stressed Sergei Lebedev.

Speaking about the work of the CIS observer mission, Sergei Lebedev said that the number of CIS observers continues rising. As of 30 August the number stood at 328 people, who came from virtually all the CIS states except Ukraine. Sergei Lebedev specified that according to Belarus’ CEC Ukraine’s representatives will monitor the elections but as independent observers.

Elections to the sixth-convocation House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus are scheduled for 11 September.