OSCE ODIHR interim report on Belarus parliament elections released
MINSK. September 15. KAZINFORM The long-term observation mission sent by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE ODIHR) published an interim report on the progress of the campaign to elect fifth-convocation House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus on 14 September, BelTA has learned.
The interim report is available on the OSCE official website. It reads that the report contains an evaluation of Belarus' election laws, mass media, the pre-election situation, the operation of the Central Election Commission of Belarus, as well as the operation of constituency and polling station commissions.
In particular, the report reads that it is the first time that political parties have been allowed to nominate candidates in all constituencies regardless of whether they have a regional structure in a specific area. Therefore, most candidates have been nominated by political parties. In line with the report the number of representatives of political parties, who sit on polling station commissions, is 2,671 while the number was 161 during the election campaign in 2008. The figure went up from 151 (in 2008) to 214 as far as constituency commissions are concerned.
Taking part in the elections or not is the central theme of the campaign, the ODIHR report says. Opposition parties have no common view regarding their participation in the elections.
The ODIHR mission has also said that the Electoral Code of Belarus allows quite a large number of persons to monitor elections. Those are authorized representatives of candidates, representatives of public organizations, political parties, groups of citizens and trade unions, mass media and international observers. As of 10 September there were 6,476 accredited observers sent by public organizations, 338 observers representing groups of citizens, 681 ones representing labor collectives, and 410 representing political parties. All in all, over 7,900 domestic observers have been accredited. In addition, the CEC has accredited 454 observers representing international organizations.
The report also says that an ODIHR working group was sent to Belarus in August. The group comprises 11 experts and 36 long-term observers, who work all over the country. The OSCE ODIHR has suggested that the member states should sent 270 short-term observers.