Why weren’t members of United Civil Party included in constituency commissions of Vitsebsk region?
The party organization nominated 7 representatives
to the constituency election commissions of the Vitsebsk region. The
appropriate documents were sent to the Vitsebsk Region Executive Committee on 5
July. However, they were not registered.
“While sending our documents by registered mail, we phone to the regional
executive committee and asked whether we wouldn’t be late (the nomination
finished on 6 July) and were answered that everything would be alright, as
there is a duty officer at the executive committee, who would receive the mail
even after the end of the working hours on 5 July. However, when we started
inquiring about the fate of our documents today, we were answered that there
were no officers on duty on weekends and therefore the documents were received
only in the morning of 9 July. Our argument that we weren’t late, as the seal
on the letter confirms that it had been sent on 5 July, was ignored. We were
answered that it is not evidence and “the he correct time is the time of
receipt,” said the head of the Vitsebsk regional UCP branch Henadz Anan’yeu.
Vitsebsk UCP activists try to appeal the position of the Vitsebsk Region
Executive Committee which refused to register their documents. Meanwhile, the
list of nominees with the remark “as of 12 a.m.” could be seen at the committee’s
website during the weekend, as if no documents had been received from interested
parties after this time. There were no UCP members in this list, as well as in
the other one, with the remark “final information”, uploaded to the website in the
morning of 9 July.
“Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”