Belarus parliament elections

MINSK, 20 June (BelTA) – Chairwoman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Belarus Lidia Yermoshina met with Ambassador of Sweden to Belarus Martin Aberg and members of the Swedish parliament in Minsk on 20 June, BelTA has learned.

According to Lidia Yermoshina, during the meeting representatives of the Swedish side received information about the Belarus parliament election campaign. “They were interested in peculiarities of arranging the campaign and how political parties take part in it,” said the CEC head. “An increase in the number of female MPs was mentioned. Representatives of the Swedish side noted that there were quite few female candidates for parliamentary seats during elections in the 1990s but now Belarus is actively progressing in this regard. Our plans to popularize female candidates among voters were also mentioned.”

Apart from that, the sides discussed the measures the Belarusian election organization agency is taking to fulfill OSCE ODIHR recommendations. “As a matter of principle, they were satisfied with the amount of information they received in the Central Election Commission,” said Lidia Yermoshina.

Elections to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus are scheduled for 11 September. Candidates can be nominated by political parties (upon decisions of their supreme governing bodies), labor collectives of Belarusian companies that employ at least 300 people (upon decisions of their conferences), and by citizens, who are supposed to collect at least 1,000 signatures in their constituency in support of specific candidates.

The candidates for parliamentary seats will be nominated from 3 July through 1 August.

Candidates can be nominated by collecting signatures via an initiative group, which has to comprise at least ten people and has to be registered by the constituency election commission. Registration documents are to be submitted to the relevant constituency election commission by 8 July.