Journalist denied accreditation at polling station in Brest

As reported by Inna Khomich, from the start of early voting she worked as an observer at a polling station located in Brest School No. 2. When the observer was not allowed to photograph a voting protocol (which is a violation of law), she showed the Election Commission members her ID of a correspondent of the Brestski Kurier newspaper and said she would stay at the polling station, including as a journalist.

"However, the Secretary of the Commission, after talking on the phone, said that the electoral law allegedly prohibits being an observer and a media representative at the same time,” says Inna Khomich. “But he failed to specify which article of the Electoral Code says this." Nevertheless, Inna Khomich was denied accreditation as a journalist.

In response to the journalist’s complaint, the Chairperson of the Precinct Commission Aksana Ivashova referred to the "Guide for the members of precinct election commissions", approved by the Decree of the CEC on December 17, 2013. "But I studied the book: it explains that there are observers, and there are journalists, but it says nothing about the ban to combine both functions," says Inna Khomich.

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