700 Electoral Violations Recorded in Gomel :: Charter'97 :: News

Around 700 violations of electoral legislation were registered by observers from “Civil Initiatives” in the Gomel region. Some 400 of them were registered at Gomel precincts, while the rest – in the districts, BelaPAN was told September 10 by deputy head of the organization Vladimir Katsora.

According to him, 1198 people were qualified and trained as observers over presidential elections. Approximately one month before the ballot, huge psychological pressure was laid on the observers. The folks have been threatened by their bosses and local administrations. The ones, pressured most, were the coordinators of observation. Data about these people could be received by local authorities from KGB, which seized the organization’s equipment back in August. Afterwards, they started targeting those, who signed the decision to nominate observers. As a result, even registered observers were denied accreditation for their supporters started withdrawing the signatures from fear. The third wave of repression occurred ahead of the ballot. According to Vladimir Katsora, it was initiated by the regional commission for presidential elections. Upon trumped-up accusations authorities of the region’s seven districts were denying registration to the observers. Katsora claims that there were left only 700 “survivors”, or half of the overall number.