Valiantsin Stefanovich: Most OSCE recommendations ignored by CEC

On April 27, Lidziya Yarmoshyna, head of the Central Election Commission, met with President Lukashenka to agree on the date of this year’s parliamentary elections. As a result, the vote was set for September 11. Furthermore, Lidziya Yarmoshyna told about the proposals the CEC had reportedly introduced in the electoral process, as demanded by the OSCE recommendations.

In particular, the electoral officials are planning to increase transparency in the formation of election commissions, consideration of electoral disputes and vote counting.

However, human rights activists are skeptical about any changes towards more openness in the upcoming elections.

“The transparency of the electoral process is the transparency of all procedures. In turn, the ODIHR and the campaign "Human Rights Defenders for Free Election" insisted on the ballots being counted by only one member of the election commission, with each ballot demonstrated and the results of voting announced to all present. But unfortunately, as we can see, these proposals will not be applied. It is also a pity that most of the recommendations made by the OSCE ODIHR have not been taken into account at all,” says Valiantsin Stefanovich.