Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections

Salihorsk District Court dismissed the appeal of Mnsk regional organization of the NGO Belarusian Popular Front “Adradžennie” against the refusal to include its representatives in precinct election commissions. Judge A. Burautsou found no violations in the actions of state officials related to the formation of the precinct election commissions.

Belarusian Central Election Commission has posted the preliminary data regarding the number of valid signatures, given in support of potential candidates for presidency, according to the information of the territorial commissions.

This conclusion was made by a local observer for the Belarusian Helsinki Committee Leanid Markhotka, who tried to get into four such meetings.

We present to your attention the following monitoring, prepared by the Belarusian Association of Journalists.

Leanid Markhotka, a representative of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, was unable to attend the procedure of verifying signatures submitted for the nomination of presidential contenders to the Salihorsk district election commission. Instead, the independent observer was invited to the final meeting of the election commission, which approved the decision taken earlier.

The Minsk regional office of the Party of the Belarusian Popular Front and the Minsk regional branch of the public association BPF "Adradžennie" have sent complaints to the courts of Sluck and Salihorsk districts to challenge refusals to include their representatives in local precinct election commissions.

The election commissions of Hrodna’s Lieninski and Kastryčnicki districts have found invalid all the 11,509 signatures that were handed over by the nomination group of presidential contender Viktar Tsiareshchanka.

Eduard Balanchuk and Aliaksandr Kaputski, observers accredited in Maladziečna, have written to the District Prosecutor’s Office to complain about a violation of electoral legislation during the registration of signature sheets for the nomination of presidential contenders.

The administration of the Hrodna regional executive committee has held a meeting to form local precinct election commissions. As a result, 36 commissions were formed within just 15 minutes.

Observation of the election of the President of Belarus is carried out by activists of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee and the Human Rights Center "Viasna" in the framework of the campaign "Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections".

Leanid Markhotka, a representative of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee in Salihorsk, had asked local authorities to provide him with an opportunity to scrutinize the documents submitted by nominees to the precinct election commissions. However, the officials rejected the observer’s request, therefore turning into a secret the procedure of formation of election commissions.

Mikalai Ulasevich, a member of the United Civil Party, has filed a complaint in the Astraviec District Court against the district executive committee which refused to include him in one of the local precinct election commissions.

The formation of precinct election commissions (PECs) was completed on August 26. "Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections" have counted the number of members and the percentage of opposition activists in the commissions.

A portion of signature sheets submitted for the nomination of presidential contender Viktar Tsiareshchanka have been printed, instead of being handwritten, says human rights activist Aliaksei Kolchyn, who attended yesterday’s meeting of the Lieninski district election commission in Mahilioŭ.

712 people have been included in the 69 precinct election commissions of Sluck district, with only one representative of the opposition.