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”