Delegates to Belarus opposition congress elected democratically - observers :: Charter'97 :: News

Independent observers note the democratic character of the election of delegates to the national congress of prodemocracy forces [to be held on 1-2 October in Minsk and to result in the nomination of a single opposition candidate to run in the 2006 presidential election], the observation coordinator, Mikalay Astreyka, told Belapan.

Independent observers started monitoring the nomination of congress delegates and the process of selecting a single presidential candidate from prodemocracy forces on 15 June. Their report contains information up to 15 September.

The report says that the observers attended about 80 per cent of the nomination conferences (95). In some cases they failed to attend the conferences due to "mistakes by the organizers" or due to their refusal to inform an independent observer of the time and the venue of such conferences. Eleven conferences did not have the sufficient number of participants.

District conferences in Pinsk (Brest Region), Syanno (Vitsebsk Region) and Yelsk (Homel Region) were disrupted by the police, Astreyka told Belapan.

On the whole, the campaign for the nomination of delegates to the congress was held in a successful and democratic way, independent observers said. "At the same time, the observers recorded multiple instances of conferences being held behind closed doors. It is worth mentioning that in all district conferences participants did not vote against the presence of independent monitors," the report reads.