Belarus parliament elections

MOGILEV, 13 July (BelTA) – The parliamentary election campaign in Belarus has got off to a very active start, Chairperson of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Belarus Lidia Yermoshina told reporters on 13 July as she held a meeting on the organization of the elections to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus of the sixth convocation in Mogilev, BelTA has learned.

“We already have 4.5 candidates per seat at this preliminary nomination stage. However, I think that the number of initiative groups will decrease as more candidates are nominated by political parties. The nomination from labor groups is a more complicated form of nomination, while signature collection, of course, is the simplest form with the biggest exposure,” Lidia Yermoshina said.

She noted that the current election campaign is different from the previous ones due to the introduction of an intermediate link, territorial election commissions, which supervise and coordinate the work of precinct election commissions. They have a considerable amount of work ahead of them. Lidia Yermoshina noted that the first and the most important stage is the examination of complaints that will certainly be filed after the registration of candidates. After that, the territorial commissions will coordinate all operations of election commissions, acting as a harmonious link between the commissions and the CEC. “I think this practice will prove successful. The results we have seen so far give reason to think so,” Lidia Yermoshina said.

She added that nine complaints alleging violations of the procedure of forming district election commissions have been filed with courts. All of them have been dismissed. The courts ruled that no electoral laws have been violated.