Russians Denied Access to Belarusian Local Elections :: Charter'97 :: News

On March 2 Belarus hosted elections into the local councils and some naïve Russian legislators decided that they were free to take part in this crucial process in observers’ capacity. But they were rudely mistaken. To the Russian State Duma MP Vadim Bondar’s inquiry, there came an official refusal from Central Electoral Commission of Belarus. As a matter of fact, the brotherly state isn’t going to invite observers, for it doesn’t feel like “going against the established international practice”, which envisages “observation over the local elections… in special cases of emergency situation in the country”, while the “social-political situation in Belarus is, on the contrary, peaceful and stable. There’s absolutely no racial, religious or national intolerance. The rights of the national minorities are respected”.

Russian CEC, which MPs addressed over the matter, explained to them that although there exists some “Copenhagen treaty of 1990”, specifying the issue, it has little to do with local elections. In fact, if Russian deputies were so eager to learn about the course of elections in Belarus, they might feel free to contact Belarusian CEC officials at their contact phone.

Indeed, when they dialed that number, they were soon connected with the author of the cited above letter, secretary of CEC Nikolai Lozovik. When asked by “MN” correspondent why the deputy’s harmless request found no understanding with them, he responded that it is all about ethics, not politics. “If we made an exception for Russians, how would we explain our refusal to the rest?” By saying “the rest” he naturally meant the US embassy officials in Belarus, who were recommended to use their right to freely travel around the country and see with their own eyes what’s going on at the polling stations. However, Lozovik confessed that there’s a tremendous difference between such visits and real monitoring – visitors, as different from authorized monitors, have no right to control anything.