Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections

Mahilioŭ observers register more and more cases of forcing to early voting. The record holder is polling station No. 42, located in gymnasium No. 3 in the Lieninski district of Mahilioŭ.

Early voting in Babrujsk is covered extensively in the state-run media. During the first two days of early voting, almost all students of colleges came to the polling stations. The newspaper of the Babrujsk City Executive Committee “Babrujskaje Žyccio” explains it with the personal wish of the electors.

As reported by independent observers, other observers who are present at their PECs are often workers of the enterprises where members of the respective PECs work, and are subordinated to certain members of the PECs outside the electoral process.

As reported by the deputy coordinator of the organizing committee of the party Belausian Christian Democracy in the Minsk region Raman Hancharou, pressurization of the members of the organizing committee who participate in the election observation is going on in Maladziečna.

The early voting started at the elections of President of the Republic of Belarus started on October 6 in conformity with the Electoral Code of the Republic of Belarus.

As reported by the movement “For Freedom”, Piatro Markelau, an observer of the Movement "For Freedom" from the campaign "Right to Elect" has been deprived of accreditation.

March 13, 2015, Ašmiany customs officers seized more than 40 copies of the brochure “Situation of Human Rights in Belarus in 2014. Review-Chronicle” from the Smarhoń human rights activist Ales Dzerhachou while he was crossing the border.

As a result of the first day of early voting at polling station No. 20, located in school No. 15, Hayavaya Str., 15 in Baranavičy, there was discovered a large discrepancy in the number of the voters who allegedly cast their votes. In the final protocol that was hanged out by the precinct election commission at 7 p.m. on October 6, this number was 143 persons, whereas indepdendent observers counted only 39.

Activists of Amnesty International tried to pass to the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus in Germany several hundred postcards with the demands to respect human rights. However, the embassy refused to accept them. The action is dated to the upcoming presidential elections.

On the very first day of early voting, October 6, “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections” started getting reports from concerned citizens, who register violations of the electoral legislation.

A member of the United Civil Party who had actively collected signatures for the nomination of the UCP Chairman Anatol Liabedzka as a candidate for presidency, has received a notice from the Brest Electromechanical Plant that her labor contract would not be extended.

As reported by an independent observer Nadzeya Shkadun, the campaigning poster hangs at the informational stand located inside the polling station, side by side with information about all four presidential candidates.

These days, a suspect in the “graffiti case” Yaraslau Ulyanenkau has received a notice from the Investigative Committee about the extension of the preliminary investigation.

Students of Brest State Technical University have complained that they were forced to vote early. Independent journalists tried to find out the details and do interviews with the students who came to the polling station, but a worker of the university who introduced herself as an observer started interfering with their work.

October 6 they were expelled on the first day of early voting, though there have been no problems with registration and visiting polling stations until that day.