Executive authorities represented in almost all of district election commissions of Brest region

Despite the fact that Brest regional executive committee and the Presidium of the regional Council made the decision to create election commissions with maximum number of members (13 people to each of the 16 commissions), some of them were not selected but appointed by the bodies which created the commissions. Thus, out of 208 commission members which were to be selected, 28 (14 from the regional executive committee, and 14 from the Presidium of the regional Council) were appointed.

Head of Brest regional committee Kanstantsin Sumar claimed they found the right place for representatives of all political parties and non-governmental organizations in the election commissions. However, we need to point out that pro-democratic activists did not get to every district election commission.  At the same time, representatives of the so-called pro-presidential parties received higher representation in the commissions: CPB, Agrarian and the Republican Party  of Labor and Justice have 16 election commission members. At the same time, the opposition political parties – BPF, UCP, PCB, and BSDP are represented in the commissions only by 6 people altogether – almost three times less than their opponents.

Among the public associations BRSM (Belarusian National Youth Union) and Belaya Rus, well-known for their loyalty to the president, are on the first place: they have 13 and 9 representatives in the commissions, respectively.

Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections