Minsk: CEC does not consider proposals and complaints of opposition members “the global issues”.

The Central Election Commission ignores the majority of the proposals and complaints from the opposition representatives. The sense of practically all replies of the CEC leadership on the remarks and demands of the democrats can be described in one sentence: the raised issues are not worth wasting time on them. The last session of the Central Election Commission is another proof of that.

Similar response was received by the UDF representatives, advisory members of CEC, who claimed precinct election commissions had been created unlawfully. CEC leadership explained the issue demands much time to prepare, and CEC lacks time to do that because the election is under way.

Lidziya Yarmoshyna gave the following explanation of CEC refusal to Anatol Liabedzka to consider his complaint about joint campaign leaflet during the session. She thinks such complaints may be considered by any CEC member individually, and the session should be dedicated only to global issues. 

CEC also failed to consider the statement of Valianstina Sviatskaya, candidate in Yaseninskaya district # 100. On September 17th Sviatskaya informed the CEC that CEC member A. Slizheuski used his official position and tried to press on her provoking to break the law. Slizheuski did not attend the CEC session. CEC chairperson Yarmoshyna made an ambiguous statement that they did not really care what CEC members were doing beyond the walls of CEC office, and no one was responsible for Slizheuski’s moral behavior.

Yury Khadyka had also sent a complaint to CEC. The ground was a news piece shown by “Panarama Weekly” on September 7th, with the purpose to defame the opposition candidate and create the negative image of the opposition candidates. CEC secretary Lazavik reacted to Khadyka’s complaint with a phone call during which he claimed he “understood”, but “could not make an influence”. As a result the story repeated: on September 14th BTV showed another news piece against the pro-democratic opposition. On its September 18th session Yarmoshyna refused to consider the complaint motivating her decision by the fact that the Central Election Commission was not responsible for BTV information policy.

Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections