Central Election Commission approves secrecy during verification of signatures
The Central Election
Commission dismissed a complaint of the observer of the Belarusian Helsinki
Committee Leanid Markhotka.
Mr. Markhotka, an observer accredited at the Salihorsk District Election
Commission, applied to the commission before the verification of signatures and
asked to be admitted to the process of their verification. ‘As a rule,
observers are invited only to the resulting sittings, where the numbers are
voiced. It is impossible to control the process of the verification. The
Electoral Code doesn’t prohibit election commissions to let observers monitor the
process of the verification, which was emphasized in my address,’ commented Mr.
Markhotka.
The Salihorsk District Election Commission didn’t let Mr. Markhotka observer
the process, as a result of which he applied to the Central Election
Commission. The latter didn’t grant his complaint and answered that ‘signatures
are verified by members of election commissions outside of official sittings,
and therefore observers have no right to be present during it’.
The wish to watch the verification of signatures at the Salihorsk DEC was also
expressed by members of the campaign team of Uladzimir Niakliayeu. However, the
DEC refused to admit them to the verification because ‘it is not provided by
the law’.
Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections
