Baranavichy: results of the first day of early voting
14 December, the first day of early voting revealed a lot of violations of the electoral legislation in Baranavichy. The biggest one was registered at election precinct #31, the commission of which is chaired by the chief physician of the local polyclinic, Elmira Bahdanovich.
Students of the local university constituted the
majority of those who voted early. They say that an advertisement-reminder on
early voting is played during every break at Baranavichy State
University. About 180
people voted there by the time an hour was left to closing of the election
precinct, which is ten times more than at other election precincts of
Baranavichy.
The Chairperson of the commission was obviously scared by such a big number
herself. As a result, she took a strange decision violating the electoral
legislation – to send away all observers. As a result, they had to stand in the
corridor and look through the doors. One of them, Viktar Tsiapin, showed a
prompt reaction and called to the public prosecutor's office. The public
prosecutor on duty arrived very soon, and the observers returned to their
places thanks to him.
By the way, precinct election commission #31 had been established with
violation of the electoral legislation – 11 out of 12 members are workers of
the polyclinic (including the Chairperson, Elmira Bahdanovich, who can use her
official position to make the commission members take any decision.
Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections
In the photo: observers watch the voting sitting in the corridor