Sluck District Executive Committee makes secret of documents on formation of PECs
An independent observer, representatives of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee Vital Amialkovich, received an reply to his request to familiarize with the documents of the candidates, nominated to the precinct election commissions, only in nine days.
As it turned out, the officials actually made a secret of such documents. As it is stated in the official response, given by the head of Sluck District Executive Committee Andrei Yancheuski,the DEC denied the request of the observer, as the notion of “election monitoring”, which is pursued by BHC, was allegedly absent in the Electoral Code, as well as the familiarization of the general public with documents regarding the formation of election committees.
Vital Amialkovich expressed his opinion as to why Sluck authorities may have put the veil of secrecy over the procedure of the formation of PECs:
“In his reply Mr. Yancheuski limits the requirements of Article 13 of the Electoral Code regarding the openness and transparency of the electoral process solely to informing the public about the decisions that have been de facto taken by the authorities somewhere behind the closed doors. Is it openness and transparency? In my opinion, this is a falsification of not just the letter of the legislation, but also its spirit. Why does then the legislation spells out the rights of observers, and what for does one need the observers, if at meetings of electoral officials we are provided only with the information which can be easily found on the official websites of the state bodies? We still don't have any opportunity to see how these decisions are taken, on the basis of which criteria and discussions.
"Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections"