Belarus parliament elections

MOGILEV, 16 August (BelTA) – There is high competition in the parliamentary elections in Belarus, Vice President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, OSCE Special Coordinator for the parliamentary elections in Belarus Kent Harstedt said as he met with Chairman of the Mogilev Oblast Electoral Commission Valery Berestov on 16 August, BelTA has learned.

“For us it is important to be able to work in the regions to monitor the election campaign. Our goal is to give a complete and objective assessment of the upcoming elections. We already see the progress in some aspects, but still a number of issues remain unsolved,” Kent Harstedt said. Among the positive points, he noted the high competition in the upcoming parliamentary elections in the country in general and in Mogilev Oblast in particular. Many candidates have noted a more open climate of the election campaign. However, he said the number of opposition representatives in the election commissions is small. Restricted access to monitoring the vote count is another issue. “If this year observers are given the opportunity to openly monitor the vote count, we will see this as significant progress in the whole electoral system,” Kent Harstedt said.

Valery Berestov stressed that the CEC took a decision to provide the opportunity for international observers to openly monitor the vote count. However, they cannot interfere with the work of the election commissions. When speaking about the small number of opposition representatives in the election commissions, Valery Berestov said that, firstly, the opposition was not active when nominating candidates at the initial stage of the campaign. Secondly, many candidates have no experience of working in election commissions and lack the necessary authority and business qualities.

He also informed Kent Harstedt that prior to the voting day the members of the election commissions will undergo special trainings on the organization of the electoral campaign, including an open vote count procedure. Election commissions will be also provided with the materials with instructions on proper organization of their work at the local level.