"Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections" appeal to the CEC with proposals to improve the transparency of the elections
Members of the campaign "Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections" offer the Central Election Commission (CEC) to implement 3 new practices to increase transparency of the elections:
1. Publish the separate results of voting for each polling station. Now the CEC publishes only summary data on voting results for each regions and Minsk.
2. Mandatory issue observers at the polling stations with certified copies of the protocols about the results of voting. At present the Electoral Code doesn't prohibit the issuance of such certified copies to observers, but in practice the majority of precinct election commissions refuse to do it, saying they aren't obliged to do it under the law.
3. Establish the exact procedure of counting of votes, at which the vote at each ballot would be announced aloud with the demonstration of the ballot to all present members of the election commission and observers. At present, the ballots are counted in the following way: piles of ballots are distributed between all members of the election commission and counted by them simultaneously. After finishing his/her calculations, a member of the commission writes the results on a sheet of paper and passes to the head of the commission. The latter sums the numbers up and writes the results in the protocol. In this situation, each member of the commissions knows only the results of his/her calculations, and observers have no way to ensure that the votes were calculated correctly.
Human rights activists believe that the implementation of the proposed recommendations doesn't require introducing changes and amendments to the Electoral Code and can be performed by the Central Election Commission within the frames of its powers under Article 33 of the Electoral Code.
"Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections" believe that these steps will contribute to the improvement of electoral procedures, increase the transparency and openness of elections and strengthen citizens' confidence in public institutions in general.