"Mahilioŭchimvalakno”: election commissions are formed of employees, observers are employees, too
Only 2 out of 75 members of precinct election commission № 117, 131, 134, 136 and 140 are not employees of "Mahilioŭchimvalakno” (“Mahilioŭ Chemical Fiber”).
The information about the employees of "Mahilioŭchimvalakno” who entered the PECs was published in the newspaper “Trudavaja Slava”, issued at the enterprise.
The newspaper published an interview with the Deputy Director General for ideology, Aliaksandr Stukanau, who told about the details of the campaign and that 4 members of the intiative group of Aliaksanr Lukasenka working at the enterprise colleted 4,570 signatures in his support.
As it is stated in the interview, 20 employees of the enterprise were sent to these five polling stations as observers. Thus, employees of the enterprise work in the precinct election commissions, other employees observe the elections and the chairpersons of the commissions, Yauhen Averkin, Mikhail Melnikau, Mikalai Dabravolski, Sviatlana Kanstantsinava and Siarhei Mikhnou, are completely dependent on the head of the Kastryčnicki District Election Commission of Mahilioŭ Aliaksandr Kazhamiakin, the head of the department for ideological work and personnel.
Human rights activist Barys Bukhel believes that all interaction between observers and members of precinct election commissions is based on the subordination at work, and such members of commissions and observers would write anything they were told:
“Earlier, the information about the places of work of members of PECs was publicly accessible, but stopped to be printed after amendment of the legislation. This was done just to hide the fact that many of the election commissions are formed on the “professional principle”, when members of PECs and their chairpersons are dependent on theirr employers, being unlikely to oppose their superiors,” says Barys Bukhel.
It should be noted that this interview has allowed to reveal the essence of how the PECs are formed in Mahilioŭ, how observers are nominated and who the PEC chairpersons depend on.
"Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections"