Activist in Brest insists on opening criminal case over electoral fraud
Dzianis Turchaniak, an activist of the movement "For Freedom", has sent a complaint to the prosecutor of Brest against the Department of Internal Affairs of the city’s Maskoŭski district.
The activist reminds in his complaint that on the day after the election he sent to the City Prosecutor's Office a request to open a case under Article 192 of the Criminal Code over forgery of ballot papers and deliberately wrong counting of votes at the city’s polling station No. 60. According to Dzianis Turchaniak, “the request set out legally significant facts and events that constitute the objective element of a crime under the mentioned article of the Criminal Code.”
The Prosecutor’s Office forwarded the petition to the district’s police department, which, in turn, sent it to the territorial election commission. The latter authority is not a prosecuting body and does not have the competence to institute criminal proceedings. As a result, Dzianis Turchaniak was told that no case would be opened, although the police did not even launch a probe. Moreover, the activist was never interviewed by the police.
A similar complaint was sent by a resident of Brest Siarhei Vakulenka, who is seeking a criminal case over forgery of ballot papers and deliberately wrong counting of votes at the city’s polling station No. 53.