Babruisk observers file complaints

A number of polling stations in Babruisk, where representatives of local democratic forces were running, were visited by unauthorized persons on the main voting day, including senior officials: City Executive Committee Chairman Dzmitry Bonakhau, his deputy Aliaksandr Markachou and others. Independent observers say that they openly gave orders to the election commission chairman.

“One of the officials whose name is not known to me visited polling station No. 18, where I was working, and told the commission chairman, "If you do not like the observers, you can expel them", says Ivan Hlukhau. “They intimidated us. After all, we had reasons to file complaints. For example, home voting at this polling station was requested by 26 persons, while members of the commission brought back 65 ballots. During the counting of votes, we were not allowed near the table, and members of the commission covered the table with their bodies. Then they refused to give us a copy of the protocol. For all these facts, we have written complaints.”

Another complaint is being prepared by Aliaksandr Khamichanak, who observed at polling station No. 2. He was eventually removed over remarks when he caught a member of the commission committing a violation of electoral laws.

“I found the girl, who voted at home without an application,” says the observer. “She agreed to confirm the fact in writing and wrote an explanation. I will attach it to my complaint, which I will file in the very near future.”

Taisiya Kabanchuk said that observers from the BCD filed a dozen complaints.

“Officials came to the polling stations with our candidates, it was clear that the commissioners were scared, trying to please their superiors. We caught them on falsification, like trying to stuff the ballot box with a pack of ballots at the polling station located in school No. 30. We tried to count every piece of paper that was thrown into the box, and our estimates significantly differed from information provided by the commission members,” says Taisiya Kabanchuk.

BCD Observers also report inflated figures on home voting.

“Members of the commission went out for an hour to get around the houses, and brought back 270, 300 ballots. And when we went with them, the results was 20 votes in 2 hours, and at the same time, people often say "We have not called you", reacted negatively. For all these facts we have already filed complaints, but we have little hope that they will be honestly addressed. When it became known that our candidate Sviatlana Hrytsenka did not get in with a margin of only nine votes, even voters were surprised because they did not hide that they came to vote for her, whole houses did,” says the BCD representatives of the final election day.

The leader of Babruisk Christian Democrats also said that she and operators of the campaign "Right to Choice" were not able to use Internet on March 23. And her phone was busy all day, because she received hundreds of calls on false ads.

“Someone once again left my phone number on sites with ads. They wrote that I offered a cheap apartment to let or was selling some things and so on. And in the end I could not to call people I needed, then I switched off the phone, because there was no point in fighting with this phone attack,” says Taisiya Kabanchuk.

"Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections"