November 30 held a meeting of the appraisal campaign "Right of Choice", which monitored the electoral process in the Viciebsk region during the presidential elections. The meeting was the latest in a series of similar undertaken in the country.
The subject of conversation was the course of the presidential campaign in the northern region of Belarus. Panelists evaluated the various aspects of the work: from information activities and training of observers to observe the counting of votes and the prospects for the future. The meeting was attended by the national coordinator of the campaign "Right of Choice" Dennis Sadowski and Regional Coordinator Kastus Smolikau.
In his address to those present Denis Sadovsky, thanked the participants for the work done, the results of which he assessed as positive, although not all of the planned managed. He asked the panelists to focus on specifics and on the constructive proposals that will contribute to improving the work as early as tomorrow, as he put it, you need to start preparing for the parliamentary campaign. He said that thanks to the work of 656 monitoring stations throughout Belarus, we can confidently assert that there are falsifications and manipulation by the authorities during the elections. For details, common-targeted campaigns, and the OSCE Mission in his final report, which the leadership campaign believed to be accurate and objective.
The regional coordinator of the campaign Kastus Smolikau in his speech among other things, pointed out that the powers of the BPF party, BCD, "Belarusian Social Democratic Party Hramada," the movement "For Freedom" and the campaign "Tell the Truth", whose members took part in monitoring the elections, managed to organize the work on 92 -x polling stations. However, initially planned to close the supervision of a hundred sites in the Viciebsk region, but at the end of the observation number for various reasons declined. On the eve of the basic work of 15 trainings were prepared for a total of 250 observers, most of them in the future and monitored the electoral process in all its phases.
With regard to the surveillance phase of counting of votes, which is essential to conclude whether elections are free and fair, there is 42 per cent of trained observers, slightly confused. They did not consider that only if during the vote count each ballot is shown on display to everyone present (commission members and observers) – elections can be considered a transparent manner. Inexperienced observers who said that during the counting of votes, all was well, said: "the first time observers admitted to the tables," "the first time the observers were able to some extent to see the process of sorting the ballots," "Commission sometimes listened to the remarks of observers "...
On this occasion, Dennis Sadowski said: "I do not know in Belarus any area where counting of votes would be open and transparent. What I mean? Each ballot must show the audience, so they can see specific sign in front of a particular candidate. After this newsletter is put into a certain stack, which in the end when all is counted. Only in this way the process of counting votes – open and transparent. "
In the ensuing discussion, many have noted: the highest number of violations occurs during early voting and voting at the place of residence. Thus, observers in two areas managed to document the fact of ballot stuffing: in photos taken on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, very different volumes and placement of ballots in the box. It was also noted that during the presidential campaign, election commissions at all levels were slow or the timing of responses to complaints of observers, or just ignore them. Attention was drawn to the fact that the legislation does not define the status of election commissions, which are temporary formations. This allows them to avoid penalties for violations of the law. In addition, most members of the Commission did not use the Belarusian language as their composition includes uneducated, incompetent people, which is also a problem.
As the regional coordinator of the movement "For Freedom" Leonid Gorovoj in Haradok district of the thirty sites on the twenty-one voted by 99 to 100 percent of the voters. Only at the polling station where he was recorded by an observer in the final protocol was introduced the figure of 85 percent of voters, the rest – big.
Mr. Gorovoj drew attention to the fact that the Electoral Code and the Constitution do not comply with the invitation to the vote, which fall into the mailboxes of voters, as they contain a hidden invitation to participate in early voting.
The comments and suggestions made during the meeting will help guide the campaign "Right of Choice" in the creation of the final evaluation document. In conclusion, the coordinator of the campaign declared their participation in the parliamentary elections to be held in September 2016 (or perhaps a month or two before), so preparatory work should begin immediately after the holidays.
S. Horki
