BHC Demands to Check Facts of Rigged Election in Belarus

28.11.2006.

“In conjunction with the statement of Alexander Lukashenka that the last presidential election was rigged, Belarusian Helsinki Committee believes it is necessary to carry out a complete public investigation by appropriate bodies and prosecute the guilty”, -BHC says in its statement. “Lukashenka’s statement implies that he has personally influenced the distortion of voting results, which is also noted in the BHC conclusions in the results of independent observation of the presidential election”, -- BHC press service points out.

Meanwhile, “CEC failed to satisfy the grounded complaint by BHC asking to recognize the elections invalid”. BHC addressed the Supreme Court with an appeal to recognize the CEC ruling illegitimate and recognize the elections invalid, but the Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

“This is the evidence of the deliberate nature of the actions of the officials, which have the characteristics of crimes under Article 191, Article 192, Article 426 part 3 of the Criminal Code. At the same time, despite of the results of the prosecutor’s reaction on the necessity to start investigation, legitimacy of Alexander Lukashenka’s office is questionable”, -- says BHC in its statement.

On November 23 during the meeting with Ukrainian journalists Alexander Lukashenka said the voting results had been falsified in favor of his opponents. “We rigged the last elections, -- he said. – 93.5% voted for President Lukashenka. They say, it’s not a European number. We made it 86. This has really happened. If we do the re-counting now, I don’t know what to do with them. Before the election we’ve been told that if we had real European numbers, our elections would be recognized. We made the European numbers”.