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Governmental “Observers” Blocked Independent Monitoring

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Governmental “Observers” Blocked Independent Monitoring
SIARHEI BAKHUN
PHOTO: SVABODA.ORG

At the polling station №10 in Minsk such “observers” in fact made it possible for the commission not to bother with counting votes.

Charter97.org was told about that by a public activist, a member of the council of “For Freedom” movement Siarhei Bakhun, who was an observer during the “elections” at the polling station №10 in Frunzenski district of Minsk in the framework of the campaign “Right For Choice – 2015”.

- You were observing the “voting” at one of the polling stations in Minsk. What was the greatest problem hindering the independent monitoring?

- Dummy, fake observers, who had been put forward by the regime. There were such pseudo-observers at many polling stations – first of all, in the places where independent monitoring had been organised. They had been appointed in contradiction to independent observers in order to block our complaints and criticism.

For example, when “voting” finished at our polling station №10 in Frunzenski district, all those “observers” wrote statements by one and the same template, saying that the “elections” were fair, and no violations had been detected. When I and other independent observers wrote our complaints of violations, all of us received almost the same answers: there had been 8 observers representing “Belaya Rus”, the Belarusian Republican Youth Union (BRSM), the Belarusian Patriotic Party at your polling station, and according to them, it had been a completely fair election – so we are viewing your complaint as a slander.

These fake observers went into a separate room with the members of the commission, drank coffee there, some probably drank some other drinks – because they went out of the room exhilarated. The tactics of the pro-governmental "observers" was aimed to show that our statements about the violations are allegedly groundless.

-What other violations do you remember?

- The main violation was that there was no actual counting of votes. When they started removing the ballots from the ballot boxes, one of the independent observers proposed to come closer to the table to see what is written on the ballots. In response, there was a chorus of straw "observers" saying that everything was clearly seen, and even there was no need to get up from the seats.

I addressed one of those "observers" who claimed that everything was plain to see, and asked, "Here are piles of ballot papers on the table. You can see everything - what is written on each paper? ". Later in the social networks I was able to identify him: that was someone called Mikhail Bankousky. Looking at his photos in social networks, you can see: he is quite satisfied with this “life”.

Members of the committee put the ballot papers in some stacks and even didn’t count them, but simply moved the stacks to the chairman and secretary of the commission. Those two people looked through the bulletins and just announced the final figures. And what was in those bulletins – remained unknown.

- How do you evaluate these “elections” in general, taking into account your monitoring experience?

- You cannot call that “elections”, because violations were at all the stages of "electoral" process – during the campaign, during the setting up of precinct commissions, at the stage of “voting” and vote counting.

What concerns fake observers: it’s hard to believe they are Belarusians, our fellow-countrymen.

I can’t understand what is wrong with these people’s souls, what are they counting for, what values do they defend.

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