Khotsimsk: constituency commission refuses to re-count ballots

Former candidate for the Mahiliou Regional Council of Deputies at Khotimsk constituency No. 54 and the candidate for the Khotsimsk District Council in Uzbiarezhnaya constituency No. 13 Valery Karankevich received a response from the constituency election commission to his complaint, in which he demanded a recount of the votes in three polling stations.

The constituency election commission of the Khotsimsk constituency No. 54 refused to grant the appeal of Valery Karankevich for recount of votes at Khotimsk election constituency No. 54. The commission noted that "according to the protocols of the abovelisted commissions (№ 1, 3, 4), there weren't found any violations. Thus, there are no reasons for taking the decision to recount the votes at Khotsimsk constituency No. 54."

"It's just a mockery by the constituency commission. Instead of recounting the votes at concrete polling stations they just tell me that the protocols of the polling stations were filled correctly,” comments Mr. Karankevich. I have no doubts that the protocols were filled properly, but I appealed about the gross violations of specific procedures at polling stations No. 1 and 3 in Khotimsk and demanded to recount the ballots at these polling stations.

It is also interesting that the letter from the constituency election commission is dated March 28, 2014, whereas I received it only this week. The mail service must work in quite a strange way if the letter is passed to the addressee for such a long time in this small town.”

Bear in mind that on April 4 Valery Karankevich personally filed and registered with the Central Election Commission a complaint that the constituency election commission No. 54, Khotsimsk district election commission and Mahiliou regional election commission didn't respond to his complaints in which he spoke about the gross violations of voting procedures at polling stations No. 1 and 3 in Khotimsk and requested a recount of ballots at these polling stations.

At about 8 p.m. on the day of the election of deputies of Local Councils, March 23, Valery Karankevich was detained by the police at the entrance of Internatsyianalny polling station No. 3 in Khotsimsk. The candidate for deputy was taken to the Khotsimsk District Police Department, where he was held for about 40 minutes without giving any charges, and then was released. The policemen stated that the reason for the detention was that a member of the constituency election commission No. 54 Mikalai Tamashou complained about him. Due to the unlawful detention Valery Karankevich didn't manage to attend the counting of the ballots.

Valery Karankevich believes that the police detained him on purpose, in order to prevent him from attending the counting of ballots at polling station № 3 in Khotsimsk.

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