Harry Pahanyaila: Belarusian authorities manage to pervert electoral process

Changes in the electoral legislation won’t secure holding democratic relations in Belarus, human rights activists say.

The head of the Belarusian Central Election Commission said the Electoral Code would be amended with regard to the OSCE recommendations. Lidziya Yarmoshyna assures that after “correction of mistakes” the Electoral Code will meet all European standards. Independent experts and politicians think the changes don’t guarantee free and democratic elections, because the authorities have a great experience of manipulation of results of electoral campaigns, Deutsche Welle reports.

Human rights activist Lyudmila Hraznova reminded about the violations she had faced running in the last parliamentary elections in autumn 2008. Independent observers didn’t have access to vote counting, members of electoral commissions filled in the already made protocols, ballots were thrown in.

Lawyer Harry Pahanyaila, a representative of the Belarusian Helsinki Commission (BHC), said in turn the current Electoral Code allows carrying out rather democratic elections. Nevertheless, the authorities manage to “pervert the electoral process”. Pahanyaila reminded that no elections in Belarus have been recognized democratic.

According to the lawyer, this is possible because the rights and duties of the parties involved in the electoral process are not spelled out in the code. The mechanism of observing these rights are not explained as well.

Observers, candidate (expect for pro-governmental ones), voters and members of electoral commissions have declarative rights, Harry Pahanyaila stresses. So, observers can be put in a corner or made leave the ballot station, a candidate can be withdrawn for a far-fetched violation, and a voter can be forced to vote earlier, the lawyer gives examples.

Besides, the Belarusian Electoral Code doesn’t contain criteria, according to which elections can be declared invalid at a ballot station, an electoral district, or in the whole country, Harry Pahanyaila says. In his opinion, this allows the CEC to recognize elections in spite of serious violations and to admit the mistakes, but say they didn’t influence the results.

Appropriate amendments to the code can improve the situation, experts think. An order of appealing against administrations, responsible for formation of electoral commissions, must be established, Harry Pahanyaila says. Commission must include on an equitable basis all parties, public movements and associations, which run in elections, the human rights activist insists.

“Guarantees of fair elections” must be defined in the code, the lawyer adds. These are open access to data of electoral commissions for observers and media and also for every citizen of the country.

“It’s not important what legislation functions in the country, but if it is used in inverse way, any perfect law won’t work,” the expert says. He emphasizes that we need guarantees that any interested in fair elections can control them.