Lidziya Yarmoshyna ignores proposal of Vitsebsk human rights defender

Human rights defender Leanid Svetsik applied to the Central Election Commission with the proposal to introduce amendments to the Electoral Code. In particular, he asked to supply Article 11 of the Electoral Code with the notion of the legal status of election commissions. In her answer the CEC head informed him that his application wouldn't be considered on its merits.

"The consideration of the proposals on amendment of the acting legislation, including electoral legislation, doesn't belong to the powers of the Central Commission, as far as the commission is a law-enforcement agency, not a subject of the legal initiative", this was the explanation. It's quite interesting that despite such absence of powers, the CEC deals with the elaboration of the draft law on the introduction of changes and amendments to the Electoral Code. "Our lawyers have already started this work", stated Lidziya Yarmoshyna to a BelTA correspondent in November 2012.

Mr. Svetsik thusly explained the reasons for his appeal to the CEC: It's worth noting that in the legislation of the neighboring Russia, for instance, election commissions are defined as state organ, whereas there is no notion of the election commission in our Electoral Code. Thus, in Belarus an election commission is not an organization, not a state organ, but nobody knows what," comments Mr. Svetsik.

"The courts don't recognize the legal status of the commissions and cannot punish their heads if the latter ones violate the rights and legal interests of citizens", continues the human rights defender. "Thus, during the 2012 there was a case in Vitsebsk, when the head and the secretary of a constituency election commission violated the Law "On Applications of Citizens and Legal Bodies". However, it was impossible to restore the violated rights at court, as far as according to the court ruling election commissions weren't organizations, that's why the action of the law didn't spread on them.

It's very said that the CEC didn't answer my proposal for formal reasons. However, I think that the lawyers who work at the amendment of the Electoral Code have understood the essence of the legal collision to which I had pointed and will introduce the appropriate amendments for its elimination," said Leanid Svetsik.

"Vitsebsk Viasna"