Observers Expelled From Polling Stations :: Charter'97 :: News

Today morning at 13th polling station of the Tsentralny district of Minsk, where the single democratic candidate for presidency Alyaksandr Milinkevich voted, the chairman of the commission expelled an observer for writing complaints for violation of the law and saying that these complaints would be submitted to international observers of the OSCE. The chairman viewed that as an intimidation, and with the help of policemen forcibly expelled the observer.

The head of the legal service of the headquarters, Uladzmir Labkovich, told to the Radio Svaboda, that on the first hour of the voting numerous clashes between observers and chairmen of polling site commissions had occurred:

“Many facts show that the commissions do not know laws and are not prepared to work with observers. We have to raise questions in the Central Electoral Committee, which tells polling site commissions to allow our observers to be present at the polling stations.

The situation in Barysau is the most telling one. More than 15 polling stations refused to let observers in, because they had been registered yesterday, though according to the law, such registration can be made a day before elections. There are a lot of cases when observers are expelled from polling stations for these or that reasons.

For instance, today morning at the 13th polling station of Minsk, where the single democratic candidate for presidency Alyaksandr Milinkevich voted, the chairman of the commission expelled an observer for writing complaints for violation of the law and saying that these complaints would be submitted to international observers of the OSCE too. The chairman viewed that as an intimidation, and with the help of policemen forcibly expelled the observer. There are dozens of such cases when chairmen of commissions expel observers from polling stations because they had written complaints”.

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