Central Election Commission agrees to abolish restrictions in work of observers
On 5 November the CEC considered the proposal of human
rights defenders about amending of its Ruling #49 of 15 September 2010. The
Belarusian Helsinki Committee proposed to abolish the novelties in the
direction of observers to election precincts and commissions.
The sitting was attended by the BHC Chairperson Aleh Hulak. According to him,
the CEC listened to his arguments concerning the address of the human rights
defenders and accepted their proposal practically without any discussions.
As a result, the governing organs of parties and NGOs received the right to
nominate observers to election commissions of all levels. Before this,
opposition organizations were unable to observe elections in the places where
they had no organizational structures.
Aleh Hulak also stated that the CEC also supported the proposal of
representatives of political parties to organize the counting of ballots in a
way that would allow the observers to see the votes put in them.'
'These proposals were accepted and we should note it as a certain step that
increases the transparency of the electoral process. I hope that it would
prevent many controversial situations when observers weren't allowed to watch
the count of the votes,' said the BHC Chairperson.
At the same time, he points the the commission declined the majority of the 15
proposals it had received. 'For instance, the proposal to change the procedure
of polling so that the votes would be counted by one member of one precinct
election commission wasn't supported without any drawing comprehensible
arguments against it,' argues Aleh Hulak.
Meanwhile, this important improvement that was rejected by the CEC could have a
serious influence on the essence of the procedures that deserve are subject to
hard criticism as imperfect and non-democratic.
Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections
