No Changes At Hand with Lukashenko At Head Says Hans-Georg Wieck :: Charter'97 :: News

OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s decision to accept the “national assembly” of Belarus as a full member of this organization, had been passed in hope for an adequate feedback on part of the Belarusian authorities, which would “facilitate progress in Belarus’ meeting the OSCE democratic standards”, BelaPAN quotes the former head of the OSCE Advisory-Monitoring Group in Belarus Hans-Georg Wieck as saying.

In his view, they got to endow the parliament with real authority and also democratize the existing electoral legislation and conditions for holding elections in Belarus, which would be interpreted as their responsive measure. The looming local elections, deems Wieck, will be a true test for the government and reveal its nature.

He underscored that the Belarusian authorities have to ensure unhindered access of opposition parties to state media and cease any discriminative measures, applied against the members of opposition political parties and non-governmental organizations.

“In fact, I’m rather skeptical as concerns possible changes for the better in Belarus, for the very policy, conducted by Lukashenko throughout his term in office, has never implied such changes,” – said Wieck in an interview to BelaPAN.