Haradok District Court turns down oppositionists' appeals against non-inclusion in precinct election commissions

The court turned down the appeals of the Vitsebsk council of the Belarusian Popular Front and the regional committee of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada) demanding to turn down the ruling of the Haradok District Executive Committee concerning the establishment of PECs.

The appeals concerned two candidacies: a BPF representative Volha Autukhova wasn't included in Savetskaya PEC #34 and a BSDP (H) representative Leanid Haravy – in Haharynskaya PEC #36.

The appeals were considered by Judge Aliaksandr Liashkovich. He ignored the argument of the head of the district BPF organization Leanid Autukhou that there were no representatives of parties at Savetskaya commission #34, whereas according to Article 5 of the Constitution and Article 34 of the Electoral Code political parties were given priority at elections.

At the beginning of the trial Mr. Haravy challenged the judge due to the fact that his wife Natallia Liashkovich is the deputy head of the commission of affairs of under-aged persons and the ruling concerning the formation of the commissions was prepared by her direct boss, Nadzeya Burunova. However, Judge Liashkovich didn't grant this motion, as well as the solicitation for inviting an interpreter to the trial, as the representative of the plaintiff spoke Belarussian, and participants of the trial had problems with its understanding, first of all the prosecutor.

Leanid Haravy turned the attention of the court to the fact that the applications for the inclusion of at least three nominees to the PECs contained essential defects. However, two of them were included in the commissions. “The representative of the defendant Hanna Hurynava didn't mange to explain why two people were included in Haharynauskaya PEC on invalid applications and why the work of the so-called working group on the formation of commissions wasn't conducted openly and transparently. The judge also ignored the fact that more than 1/3rd of the staff of Haharynskaya PEC #36 were officers of the Haradok District Executive Committee,” commented Mr. Haravy.

The activist wasn't included in the commission despite his experience of work in election commissions (even as the head of a commission). Bear in mind that he repeatedly disclosed the illegality of rulings of the Haradok district election commission during the local election of 2010 and mass-scale violations at Haharynskaya PEC during the last presidential campaign.

The present prosecutor stated that officers of the district executive committee could have a “personal attitude” towards Leanid Haravy, which could be a reason not to include him in the commission.

“Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”