Lazavik calls OSCE/ODIHR spokesperson “mad”

The secretary of the Belarusian Central Election Commission (CEC) states Yarmoshyna and he were invited to Vienna.

Belarus received an invitation from the OSCE to take part in a conference in Vienna to discuss elections and election observation, CEC secretary Mikalai Lazavik told Interfax-Zapad news agency.

“The information that we are impostors, who were not invited to the OSCE meeting is ravings of a madman,” Lazavik said commenting on the information that Lidzia Yarmoshyna visits Vienna without an invitation from the OSCE.

“It's absurd. Firstly, no one, neither Yarmoshyna, nor me or even a foreign minister, can pay a visit on our own initiative. You need an invitation to be able to take part in any event. We could not have received Schengen visas without an invitation,” Lazavik said.

According to him, “We would not have been allowed to travel outside our borders. The conference is held under aegis of the OSCE, so the invitation was sent by the OSCE.”

The CEC secretary explained “the invitation was sent to the Republic of Belarus. When an issue of our participation in the conference was discussed, it was said Belarus would be represented by Yarmoshyna or Lazavik. The hosting party, the OSCE, agreed and we received our visas,” Lazavik said. He added the CEC head was already in Vienna. Besides the conference, the CEC chairwoman is expected to meet with CEC heads of the CIS countries, the Belarusian CEC secretary notes.

The Belarusian CEC head was given a Schengen visa though the EU Council had banned her and other Belarusian officials from entering the EU countries.

As charter97.org website already reported, co-chairman of the campaign “For Fair Elections” Viktar Karnyaenka was to take part in the OSCE conference in Vienna.

Karnyaenka was not allowed to leave the country at the Minsk airport on Tuesday. He received an “exit denied” notice in his passport.

He connects the incident to the campaign “For Fair Elections” and authorities' unwillingness to hear an alternative point of view. “This is the way the authorities are preparing for the election campaign,” the co-head of the civil initiative said.