Ministry of Justice Opposed to the Parallel Count of Votes :: Charter'97 :: News

In a statement, circulated by the Ministry of Justice on August 16 it is noted that “recently certain media outlets have been telling about the intentions of an unregistered public association “Independent observation” to monitor the work of electoral commissions and parallel count of votes in order to announce on September 10, 2001 their own results of voting.” In this regard the Ministry of Justice reminds that the activities of individuals, acting on behalf of unregistered public formations is an administrative breach, whereas “the presumable work of independent observers contradicts Belarusian legislation”.

The Ministry says that “under art.13 of the Electoral Code, the observer cannot survey the voters, who arrived at the polling station. The calculation of votes is carried out by the members of district, territorial and central electoral commissions alone.”

The authorities also warn of legal responsibility for the failure to comply with legislation provisions: “art.167 of the Administrative code envisages 10 minimal wages fine or up to 2 months of corrective labor with the retention of 20% of income.”

Moreover, the Ministry officials note that art.191 (“Interfering with the exercise of electoral rights or electoral commission’s work”) of the Criminal code punishes the guilty ones with public labor, fine, two years of corrective labor, five years of freedom restriction or imprisonment for the same period.