Barysau: election commission unable to check whether there were any violations
Human rights defender Aleh Matskevich received an
answer to his complaint Barysau election constituency #62 almost a week after
the end of the election.
The answer was signed by the head of constituency election commission #62 Vasil
Barannik. “Having read an explanatory note of the head of precinct election
commission #9 Zavadski Andrei Andreyevich, the constituency election commission
of the Barysau election constituency #62 informs that following provisions of
Article 52 of the Electoral Code of the Republic of Belarus the precinct
election commission provided the possibility to vote for those who could not
come to the polling stations because of their state of health or other
important reasons. It seems impossible to check up the facts of violation of
Article 54 of the Electoral Code mentioned by you, as you didn't specify the
surnames and addresses of the electors whom, to you mind, violations on the
part of the election commission, concerned,” reads the answer received by Mr.
Matskevich.
In fact, it is quite easy to check who really invited the commission members
for home voting. In his complaint Aleh Matskevich stated that at 10.a.m. - 1.30
p.m. the box for home voting was brought to two electors who couldn't call the
commission members as they were in an unconscious state; three more were no
longer alive; five people openly stated they hadn't invited the commission
members; eleven were absent from home; sixteen had already voted at the polling
station. The only thing the constituency election commission had to do to check
the facts described by Matskevich was to compare the register of applications
for home voting with the lists of those who voted at home.
“Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”