08.12.2010 Ihar Alinevich has confrontations and Mikalai Dziadok – a high temperature
Investigative activities are conducted towards an activist of the Belarusian anarchist movement Ihar Alinevich who was detained on 28 November. According to our information, the investigation has held three confrontations with his participation so far.
08.12.2010 Let's say 'No!' to forced early voting together
Administrative resource is still widely used all regions of the country to secure mass early voting.
06.12.2010 Election of the President of Belarus 2010: Weekly Analytical Review (29 November – 5 December)
The CEC refused to allow observers to be present at the polling stations overnight during the early voting period, and once again dismissed the proposal to describe the process of vote count in detail, i.e. ignored those elements of voting process which are most vulnerable to potential falsifications.
01.12.2010 Authorities are forming army of ‘pocket observers’
The heads of the precinct election commissions received the errand to form brigades of observers. The latter ones are instructed how to counteract ‘curious’ journalists and observers during the count of the poll, neutralize the personal opinions entered by observers and witness another ‘elegant victory’. The observer of the NGO BPF Adradzhenne saw it all at the training seminar for the heads of the precinct election commissions of the Maskouski district of Minsk on 30 November.
01.12.2010 Election of the President of Belarus 2010: Weekly Analytical Review (22-28 November)
Observers have reported the broad use of administrative resources with the aim to ensure mass early voting – the most convenient occasion for falsifications.
29.11.2010 OSCE calls for closer cooperation with civil societies worldwide
On 29-29 November Astana, Kazakhstan, hosted the OSCE Civil Society Parallel Conference, attended by over 200 NGO representatives from 26 OSCE member countries. The conference is an independent event, initiated by the OSCE members ahead of the 2010 Summit to be held in Astana on 1-2 December.
25.11.2010 Viasna’s statement on detention conditions of businessman Bandarenka
Member of the National Committee of the United Civic Party, candidate for Parliament during the 2008 election Andrei Bandarenka is serving a sentence in Babruisk penal colony, where he has been repeatedly subject to harassment by the colony’s administration, including repeated ungrounded incarceration, disciplinary sanctions, refusals of medical aid.
15.11.2010 Review-Chronicle of Human Rights Violations in Belarus in October 2010
In October participants of the campaign Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections observed the following stages of the electoral campaign – the collection of signatures in support of the potential candidates for President (ended on 29 October) and the nomination of candidates to precinct election commissions, one of the key mechanisms of the electoral process that directly organizes the voting and the counting of votes. 11 pretenders for presidency passed more than 100,000 signatures to territorial election commissions. 10 of them were registered as candidates and continued taking part in the electoral race. Observers of the campaign continued registering cases of violation of the electoral legislation by administrations of state enterprises and organs which manifested in collection of signatures during working hours and forcing in the process of collection of signatures. The nomination of candidates for precinct election commissions ended on 31 October. An insignificant number of representatives of oppositional parties were included in them (about 0.25% of the total number). Territorial election commissions denied observers in observing the verification of signatures for the nomination of candidates.
10.11.2010 Mikalai Dziadok holds on
The investigation into the criminal case against the student of the European Humanities University Mikalai Dziadok was extended for six months, and the term of his keeping in custody – for five months. So far Mikalai Dziadok has been given charges under Article 339, part 2 – ‘hooligan actions conducted by a group of individuals’.
10.11.2010 Mazyr District Executive Committee: ‘working groups’ mustn’t interest observers
The Mazyr DEC refused to familiarize observer Uladzimir Tseliapun with its ruling about the establishment of the so-called ‘working groups’ that had actually formed the precinct election commissions in the Mazyr district.
09.11.2010 Election of the President of Belarus 2010: Preliminary Report on Monitoring Formation of Precinct Election Commissions
The discriminatory attitude of executive committees to candidates from opposition parties was obvious; out of 1,073 candidates to PECs from these parties only 183 persons, or 17.1 percent, became commission members. At the same time the average "passing rate" of other candidates was 84.3 percent (70,815 members out of 84,024 candidates); the figure for the parties loyal to the authorities was 87.7 percent (1586 out of 1808), while with the candidates from 4 major pro-governmental public associations and 1 trade union the figure was 93.2 percent (23,689 persons out of 25,419 candidates became PEC members).
05.11.2010 Precinct election commissions: ‘discrimination coefficient’ remains the same
On 5
November the civil campaign Human Rights
Defenders for Free Elections held a press-conference on the results of the
formation of precinct election commissions. The results that were announced by
the Chairperson of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee Aleh Hulak and the lawyer
of the Human Rights Center Viasna Valiantsin
Stefanovich are quite disappointing for those who expect some democratization
of the election process. It was stated that representatives of opposition
structures weren’t included in the commissions five times more often than
representatives of the organizations that are loyal to the present authorities.
‘The coefficient of discrimination’, as Mr. Hulak called it, remains the same
in comparison to the previous election.
04.11.2010 Smarhon: quota in precinct commissions is not spread on representatives of opposition
On 3 November the Smarhon District Executive Committee formed the precinct election commissions in the district.
04.11.2010 Baranavichy: 5 oppositionists to work in precinct commissions
On 3 November the Baranavichy Town Executive Committee held a sitting
for forming precinct election commissions. All 66 commissions were formed
without discussion the candidacies to them.
03.11.2010 Election of the President of Belarus 2010: Weekly Analytical Review (October 25-31)
Of 238 complaints lodged with the assistance of “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections” campaign’s lawyers from the beginning of the election campaign, only 9 have been satisfied (those related to decisions of local authorities about places where pickets for collecting signatures were prohibited). Central and territorial election commissions have rejected all complaints related to the violation of the electoral legislation by the initiative group of Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
