Salihorsk: Territorial commission formed in 15 minutes
The formation of the Salihorsk district election commission followed a completely predictable scenario, says local representative of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, Leanid Markhotka, who attended the meeting.
A joint meeting of the Salihorsk district executive committee and the Council of Deputies took just 15 minutes. The chief ideologist Mikalai Maskevich quickly read out the names of the fifteen nominees, two of which were said to have withdrawn their applications.
“Everything was absolutely formal, with no discussion of candidates to the commission. Maskevich read the list so fast and so indistinctly that it was more than problematic to both remember who nominates who and make a sensible decision on each applicant. Chairman of the executive committee Aliaksandr Rymasheuski said that he knew all of them and they were well known in the district, so he said there should be no doubt when voting,” says Leanid Markhotka. “I made a remark that these famous people are not known to all. Besides, at the meeting there were representatives of the Salihorsk TV channel, which could tell all the residents of the city about the future members of the election commission. But my observation, unfortunately, was ignored.”
As a result of absolutely non-competitive procedures, thirteen persons were elected to the Salihorsk district election commission. There was no separate consideration of each candidate, and the vote was for an entire list. Local representatives of democratic parties and organizations did not nominate any candidate sot the election commission.