Polish observers: Elections are a smoothly running manipulation machine
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10:15, — Politics
International observers are shocked by the Belarusian elections.
“Aliaksandr Lukashenka would want for Polish observers to learn democracy from Belarus as it seems to him that it all works like a Swiss watch here, but this is, unfortunately, a Soviet watch, which work the way the authorities want it to and in the elections results will be the ones the authorities want”, - a Polish observer from the OSCE’s Parliamentray Assembly Mikhail Szczerba says according to the report of the TVN24 channel (translation - charter97.org).
The observer highlighted the exclusion of the opposition from the elections via selective candidates registration, too low representation in the electoral commissions, limitation of the media access for the opposition and opposition’s public naming and shaming.
In his opinion the most contested issue is the early voting , which had been held during five days before the elections day.
“The observers didn’t have an opportunity to control this kind voting which was used by more than 25% of the people having suffrage, - Szczerba pointed out. – The composition of the electoral commissions also causes serious doubts. The chairman of the commission and his deputy are always the people who enjoy the authorities’ trust and are totally loyal towards them, taught the methods of the vote counting manipulation for years”.
Another Polish observer Henrik Smolazh (Polish Peasant Party) said that the electoral process in its totality – starting from candidates and electoral commissions registration and ending with the provision of food services at polling stations and home ballot box delivery on voter’s request – shows the smooth run of the system but doesn’t contribute to democracy.
Antonio Miloshski, head of the observation mission of the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, also sees problems with voting.
“The OSCE mission states that there is lack of the desired balance in the composition of the electoral commissions. This balance is needed for every participant of the electoral process to trust the commission”, - he highlighted while visiting one of the polling stations in Minsk.
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