Speaker of old “house of representatives” accused OSCE of “nonconstructivity”

Speaker of the “house of representatives” of the “national assembly” Vadzim Papou hopes that final conclusions of the OSCE on the “parliamentary elections” in Belarus will be adjusted to some extent.

“I would hope that a final conclusion will promote our further cooperation, recognition of choice and will of people as main values of democracy,” V. Papou said opening the last session of the third “house of representatives”.

As it was informed, the new “house of representatives” is to begin its work on October 27.

“The elections were held in accordance with the Constitution of Belarus, national legislation and international standards,” V. Papou emphasised. He noted that observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIC) fully agreed with this conclusion. OSCE mission observers said the “elections” met the national laws, but, according to the speaker, “not all of OSCE’s preliminary conclusions answered a spirit of constructive position.”

It should be reminded that OSCE/ODIHR election monitoring mission didn’t recognise the “parliamentary elections” in Belarus free and democratic. OSCE observers noted “bad or very bad” process of vote count in 50 per cent of the cases. 40 per cent of the observers weren’t able to monitor the vote counting in full. The elections ultimately fell short of OSCE standards.