OSCE envoy to Belarus says election will be year`s "most important" event :: Charter'97 :: News

The OSCE office in Minsk will continue its work in two major directions this year: the implementation of projects and monitoring fulfillment of obligations by Belarus, the head of the office, Eberhard Heyken, told Belapan. According to him, the OSCE office "gained much experience" last year. "Therefore, the conditions for starting work this year will be much better than the starting conditions in 2003," Heyken believes.

He said that because the decision to extend the office`s mandate for a year was taken in late December, new projects have not been discussed yet. However, Heyken said, they will be implemented in the areas determined by the mandate: institutional development, the rule of law, civil community, the economy and ecology. The office will also facilitate the implementation of projects by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Right [ODIHR].

The office will stick to "the principle of close consultations with the government", Heyken said. He also noted that the negotiations process in 2003 "was good" on the whole. However, the diplomat stressed, the OSCE office "needs space for manoeuvre" "so that we can implement the provisions of our mandate in full".

One of the main directions in the OSCE office`s work this year will be linked with "the most important political event" the parliamentary elections in autumn 2004. Heyken said that together with the OSCE ODIHR, the organization plans to organize short-term and long-term monitoring of the election process. Moreover, the office will be involved in the preparatory stage of the election.

The head of the office recalled that the OSCE ODIHR director, Christian Strohal, discussed the need to amend the Belarusian electoral legislation with the chairman of the Belarusian Central Electoral Commission, Lidziya Yarmoshyna, during their meeting in November 2003. The ODIHR head noted then that there was time for this. In response, Yarmoshyna said that "it would not be correct" to amend legislation ahead of the elections.

However, Heyken noted, it is too early to draw final conclusions on the possibilities for amending electoral legislation before the parliamentary elections. "I am not ruling out that the Belarusian side may implement these or other approaches in coming months," he said.
For his part, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry`s press secretary, Andrey Savinykh, told Belapan the following when commenting on relations between the authorities and the OSCE office: the authorities "hope that the projects of the OSCE office in Minsk next year will be balanced in all areas provided for by the mandate and meet the real needs of the host country."