"House of representatives” without opposition

The new parliament is going to be as puppet as the previous one.

The Central Election Commission of Belarus (CEC) published the composition of the “house of representatives”. There is no single opposition representative, as it was expected.

The announcement was made by head of the Central Election Commission Lidzia Yarmoshyna.

Observers and opposition politicians say about mass law violations during the “election” and at the preparation stage.

The authorities censored opposition candidates' speeches on the radio and TV during the election campaign. Many of candidates were simply not aired. Printed materials of alternative candidate were often  confiscated. Opposition candidates faces attempts to hinder them to produce printed materials.

Most violations were recorded during early voting. Nearly all big universities and enterprises are reported to have forced people to vote early. Students, workers and military personnel living in dormitories as well as staff of government enterprises and imprisoned people had to vote early.

As practice of the previous “election campaigns” shows, early voting results significantly differ from the results of the main voting day. Observers recorded facts of free access to early voting ballot boxes. Observers also report about several cases of ballot throw-in. The CEC and  independent observers have different statistics about the number of people who voted early.

The main voting day didn't pass without violations. It was the first time in the history of Belarusian elections when the so called merry-go-round voting, when people are bused from one polling station to another, has been used. Voter turnout at almost all stations sharply increased by the evening. Observers almost didn't have opportunities to watch the vote counting process. A lot of observers were expelled from polling stations on far-fetched grounds.

Opposition parties already said they would not recognize the “election”. Voter turnout was overstated significantly. Independent observers think the “election” was invalid in a great number of constituencies.