Belarus parliament elections

The head of the Belarusian election organization agency said: “The preliminary report is quite balanced. We don’t agree with some things though, for instance, proposals meant to discriminate against voters in the full sense of the word.” According to Lidia Yermoshina, the Belarusian side believes it is optimal to put voters on voting lists depending on their place of registration in addition to allowing voters to vote where they live without them having to prove they live there in a court of law as is the custom in some countries. “Our way makes voting procedures simpler and brings more voters to the polls. OSCE observers are unhappy about it. They believe we should make voter participation in elections more complicated. We disagree,” stressed the Chairwoman of the Central Election Commission.

Yet if the OSCE ODIHR’s final report contains proposals designed to improve the vote count procedure, such proposals will get attention and may be taken on board if feasible.

Speaking about possible liberalization of Belarusian election laws in the future, Lidia Yermoshina noted that the Central Election Commission already has a number of proposals that will be systematized after the OSCE ODIHR delivers the final report on the Belarusian parliament elections. In her words, as sources of legislative initiative the president of the country and the parliament will decide independently whether foreign experts are needed to adjust Belarusian election laws.

BelTA reported earlier that the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights will publish the final report on the latest Belarusian parliament elections in eight weeks after the election process is over. The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly will present its report during the session of the Permanent Committee in Skopje, Macedonia on 1 October. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will present its report in Strasbourg, France on 10 October.