Salihorsk: no oppositionists on precinct election commissions
The sixty-nine precinct election commissions of Salihorsk district were formed in as little as 35 minutes. No representatives of the opposition were included in the election commissions.
Leanid Markhotka, an observer from the Belarusian Helsinki Committee who attended the meeting of the executive committee, emphasized the formality of the event:
“The chief ideologist of the district, Mikalai Maskevich, announced from the podium that all selected members of these 69 commissions, who were selected by someone before the meeting, were decent and experienced persons. Meanwhile, there was no personal consideration of the commission members. The whole procedure was of a formal nature. Not a single representative of the United Civil Party, the Belarusian Popular Front and other opposition organizations were included in the commissions, although their number was very low.”
The draft decision was voted for unanimously, even though none of the officials saw the documents on the proposed members of the commission.
“Even where there were some alternative candidates from the opposition, there was no debate. No explanation why they were rejected, why they were worse than others. When I remarked about violation of the procedures they said that otherwise they would have to sit there till the evening,” says Leanid Markhotka.
According to the human rights activist, the meeting did not reveal who would count votes in Salihorsk district. So far, the observer only knows average statistics on the means of nomination. In fact, the vote for the commission members was a “pig in a poke.”