Minsk: election commissions are still recommended to organize brigades of ‘observers’
Several days the
authorities held an educational seminar for the heads of the precinct election
commissions of the Zavadski district of Minsk. The seminar was lead by the
chief specialist of the organizational and personnel department of the Zavadski
District Executive Committee Iryna Yanushevich.
According t the observer Valiantsina Sviatskaya, the seminar was quite usual: ‘Everything
was done very precisely, correctly and quite benevolently. The heads of the
PECs were trained how to organize the electoral process in line with the
existing normative documents concerning presidential elections, especially the
recently adopted ruling #98 of the Central Election Commission. In general, I
was dismayed only by one circumstance: during the seminar Iryna Yanushevich proposed
the heads of the PECs
to report about the number of observers at their precincts on each day of the
voting. I don’t understand why such extraordinary attention is paid to
observers.’
Bear in mind that during an earlier seminar the Deputy Chairperson of the
Maskouski District Election Commission Aliaksandr Kudziarmayeu (who is also the
head of the organizational and personnel department of the Maskouski District
Executive Committee), told the present heads of PECs that there should be at
least 10 observers at each precinct, they would be nominated by the Belarusian
Union of Women, Belaya Rus and
working collectives of various state institutions and needed to have a
commandant.
Most probably, such orders are also given by the authorities in other districts
of Minsk.
The political scientist Piatro Varatynets commented: ‘I am sure that such
orders still exist. It is very difficult to refuse from the system and the algorithm
of activities that have existed for 16 years already and try to please the
West, which has been considered almost an enemy till lately.
Just imagine – you have conducted elections on a quite precise scenario and are
proposed another, quite different one. At the same time, all commissions, and
first of all the precinct ones, have to provide 75% of votes for Lukashenka –
the number that was voiced by him as the most desirable one.
I think that many interesting things await us at the end of the presidential
campaign.’
By the way, the administrations of the Minsk
district will continue their meetings with the heads of the PECs, but they won’t be held in the format of
training seminars.
Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections
