Vitebsk: District division misleads voters
Many times human rights defenders addressed the Central Election Commission about publishing of precinct election commission addressed not according to the rayon, but according to the election district division. Every time they received only formal replies. In their statements the human rights defenders indicated that not only the voters, but also members of district and precinct election commissions cannot figure out, to which election district a certain precinct belongs, and gave numerous examples of that. CEC members claimed the problem is far-fetched.
However, the practice has shown, the problem does exist in reality. Let us give you the registered facts.
Deputy chairman of Vitebsk city executive committee P. I. Losich, in his letter of September 12th, 2008 sent Andrei Levinau, candidate in Vitebsk-Chyhunachnaya district # 19 to hold meetings with voters in Vitebsk rural district # 21. Levinau was sent to secondary school # 15, which is located in Chyhunachny rayon of Vitebsk city, but belongs to Vitebsk rural district # 21. Even if the main ideologist of the city Losich could not figure out the cobwebs of the district division 10 days before the early voting what can one expect of the ordinary voters? The same candidate was sent to campaign to Vitebsk rural district by deputy head of Chyhynachny police department police major A. Shastou.
If one visits the dormitory in Zhestkova Str, 24 in Vitebsk, one will see a general election poster with the bios of candidates who run in Vitebsk-Kastrychnitskaya district # 20. The dormitory administration received the poster from Vitebsk-Kastrychnitskaya district election commission. The dormitory is located in Kastrychnitski rayon of Vitebsk, but belongs to Vitebsk-Chyhynachnaya election district # 19. The dormitory administration failed to explain how voters from one district can vote for candidates running in another district. They only said that the election commission of Vitebsk-Kastrychnitskaya district knew better.
Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections
