Mahiliou region: state officials disguise in election commissions as representatives of public

According to the official data, state officials make only 5% of the composition of election commissions in the Homel region.

However, one can found mainly public members and people nominated by citizens in the lists of election commissions. The authorities even didn’t use every opportunity of such a nomination form as ‘labour collectives’… But let’s look who hides behind ‘representatives of NGOs’.

For instance, we take the Savetski precinct election commission #1 in the town of Loyeu. At least 8 members have remained in the commission since the local council election. The commission member Valiantsina Aniskova was nominated by the trade union of workers of state institutions. Aniskova is the head of the statistics department at the district executive committee. The commission member Tatsiana Lahuta was nominated by the trade union of workers of education and science. She works as principle officer at the education department of the district executive committee. Henadz Misachanka was nominated by citizens as the head of the management department of agriculture at the district executive committee.

Leninski precinct commission #2 (Loyeu). Viktar Kazulia, the head of the labor, employment and social protection department of the district executive commission was proposed for nomination by the trade union. The editor of the local newspaper Sviatlana Matornaya was nominated by the Belarusian Union of Women. The deputy headmaster of a secondary school Ala Matornaya was nominated by the ‘state NGO’ Belaya Rus. The principle officer of the economics department at the district executive committee Andrei Navumenka was nominated by the pro-presidential organization Belarusian Republican Youth Union. As a result, 10 out of 13 members of the commission are state officials. But even the remaining three may be officials, who knows.

Moreover, the precinct election commissions in the town of Loyeu are not an exception. Most of precinct commissions have been formed according to the same principle. They are composed of common and senior government officers, not pubic members. We remind that the maximal legal quota for state officials in election commissions is 1/3^rd of a commission.

Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections