Belarus parliament elections

MINSK, 11 August (BelTA) – I hope that candidates to the Belarusian parliament will not let voters down and withdraw from the race, Chairperson of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Belarus Lidia Yermoshina said in a video posted on the Elections 2016 website, BelTA has learned.

Lidia Yermoshina stressed that district election commissions carefully studied every document submitted by prospective candidates and there were no unreasonable claims on their part. “We can say that this year’s election campaign is liberal and democratic, careful to every prospective candidate,” she said.

The CEC head also informed that there will be no one-candidate constituencies at this year’s parliamentary elections. “Of course, there are several districts where there were only 2 people running in the elections (at the time of nomination there were two and the number may increase once the registration is over). But I hope that the number of candidates will not decrease as the election date approaches. If a withdrawal happens, I hope that it will be for a reason and that the candidates will not let their voters down and withdraw without sufficient justification,” she said.

On the whole, the competition is high, Lidia Yermoshina said. “The candidates-per-seat ratio in the city of Minsk is almost 6 people (5.7). In the regions this ratio is over 4 people. The least is in Minsk Oblast (3.9 per seat on average). But the choice is much wider than that we had in the parliamentary elections in 2012,” she added.