Yarmoshyna afraid of going to Kyiv

CEC head Lidzia Yarmoshyna wouldn't like to be directly involved in observing the presidential election in Ukraine scheduled for May 25.

“I wound send there a man. I think the situation in Kyiv is not safe,” she said to BelaPAN.

“Frankly speaking, I wish every election organiser and every state had less such interests. It's better when it goes on a routine basis in accordance with the schedule, but not as a result of revolutions,” the head of the Central Election Commission said.

The Belarusian Central Election Commission hasn't received an invitation to observe the presidential election in Ukraine. “But they still have time. As a rule, an invitation can be sent a month before the election, if it doesn't concern the composition of the observation mission,” Yarmoshyna said.

She “fully trusts” the outcome of the referendum in Crimea. “It is seen clearly. Perhaps, it was the issue of survival for the people of Crimea. If the referendum was about theoretical and abstract things, more time should have been needed. But the proposed question was too close for every voter. Crimea is a small area with the number voters slightly higher than in Minsk,” the CEC head noted.

Yarmoshyna says it's possibel to carry out a “referendum” in Belarus within a short time. “The 2004 referendum took 40 days. It is the minimum time for preparing polling stations. Let's remember that Ukraine, like Russia, has permanent territorial commissions. They always have lists of voters, they always monitor them, they have free officials. In fact, the only problem they had was financing,” she said.