Belarusian opposition members excluded from local election body :: Charter'97 :: News

The leader of a group of Zhodzina town council deputies, Alyaksandr Valchanin, who is also currently the coordinator of the local election bloc For Social Development, and the coordinator of the Changes! Our Choice coalition, Alyaksey Lapitski, have filed a complaint with the head of the Central Electoral Committee, Lidziya Yarmoshyna.

They accuse Yarmoshyna of condoning the illegal activities of town council officials in the course of the creation of the town electoral commission.
According to Valchanin and Lapitski, the head of the Zhodzina Town Executive Committee, Valeryy Kashewski, left out the names of opposition candidates [to sit on the commission] while reading out the list of candidates during a town council meeting, which took place on 5 December. Afterwards, Kashewski presented the list for approval, and the meeting participants quickly voted in favour. However, a number of town council deputies who were present at the meeting as observers insisted on a second vote for the list that included the opposition candidates. As the 13 seats in the electoral commission had been filled during the first vote, the second one did not tip the balance in favour of the opposition candidates.
After the meeting, Lapitski notified Yarmoshyna in writing about the violations. She replied that the meeting was conducted in full compliance with electoral legislation. "Consequently, your claim that this commonplace situation is a political scandal is baseless," Yarmoshyna stated in her response.
"If electoral district commissions are created along similar lines, we reserve the right to seek the support of the international and Belarusian public and take the local authorities to court if the local election results are falsified," Alyaksandr Valchanin and Alyaksey Lapitski said in an interview to Belapan.