Is vague determination of electoral procedures just a mistake of Central Election Commissions?
Lidziya Yarmoshyna, chair of the Central Election Commission
The first day of early
voting showed the absence of a distinctive determination of a number of
electoral procedures, including the keeping of the ballot boxes, the sealing of
the electoral precincts and the stay of the police guards.
According to the Methodical Recommendations adopted by a ruling of the Central
Election Commission, the lists of electors and other electoral materials must
be placed into special metallic safes and sealed by the commission chairperson
or his deputy for the time when the voting is not conducted (2 to 4 p.m. and 8
p.m. – 10 a.m.). the safety of the ballot boxes is secured by members of the
precinct election commission, but the Methodical Recommendations don’t give any
details about it.
There’s also no information about the place where the duty policeman must stay
after the end of the voting. As a result, the policemen often stay in the rooms
where ballot boxes and ballot papers are kept. A similar thing is observed with
the sealing of the entrances of election precincts for the night: in some
places the commissions seal the doors, and in other ones the doors are just
locked, or just one entrance is sealed whereas all other ones remain unsealed.
Experts of Human Rights Defenders for
Free Elections believe that the absence of a detailed determination of the
keeping the ballot boxes, the sealing of the precincts and the places of stay
of the police guards are a considerable omission from the side of the Central
Election Commission of the Republic of Belarus.
Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections
