Democratic Parties Nominate Their Representatives to Circuit Electoral Commissions
Democratic parties nominated 212 representatives to circuit electoral commissions.
Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada nominated 23 persons,
Party of Communists of Belarus – 78,
United Civil party – 61,
Belarusian People’s Front – 50.
Belarusian Social Democratic Party (“Narodnaya Hramada”) intends to nominate its representatives to the commission. It plans to nominate about 80 persons. The decision will be taken on 21 July. Belarusian Labor Party is going to nominate about 29 persons.
Several public associations decided to nominate their representatives to circuit electoral commissions:
Republican public association – 18 persons,
Public association Belarusian People’s Front “Adradzhenne” – 37.
It’s worth mentioning that according to the electoral calendar that was adopted by the Central Electoral Commission, the stage of nomination of representatives to circuit electoral commissions will end on 30 July.
At a press conference the CEC head Lidziya Yarmoshyna told about her criteria for choice of members of circuit electoral commissions. Her opinion is that the commissions are to be formed not of those who file the appropriate documents more quickly, but of the persons with juridical education and experience of work in commissions.
-- The decision about inclusion of a person into a commission is made in his/her absence. The candidates are not summoned for interview by the Presidiums of Regional Deputy Soviets. It is quite interesting how the bodies that form the circuit electoral commissions find out about ones education and experience in electoral campaigns. There are no legally established criteria for choice of commission members. There’s no possibility of appealing to court against decisions of the bodies that form the commissions. In practice it results in absence of representatives of public associations and political parties in electoral commissions. The commissions are made maximally dependent on the executive vertical, -- pointed out the lawyer of Human Rights Center “Viasna” Valiantsin Stefanovich.
