There are only 42 oppositionists out of 1430 members of district electoral commissions (updated)

The Central Election Committee of Belarus has accounted for forming 110 district electoral commissions for election of deputies of the “chamber of representatives”. The number of oppositionists there is negligibly small.

1430 citizens have become members of the commissions, the CEC Secretary Nikalay Lazavik informs.

The Communist Party of Belarus (KPB), a pro-regime party, is the one which is represented most widely. 58 persons have become members of the commissions. The Agrarian party, the Belarusian Social and Sports party and the Liberal Democratic Party, the Republican party of Labour and Justice, which are loyal to the regime, are represented by 11, 10, 15 and 19 members respectively.

As for representatives of democratic parties, the United Civil party, the Belarusian Popular Front, the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada) and the Belarusian Party of Communists have become members of electoral commissions. (Among them are 17 members of the UCP, 5 members of the Belarusian Popular Front, 10 members of the Belarusian Party of Communists, and 6 members of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada)). Only 4 persons representing the public association of the Belarusian Popular Front “Adradzhenne” have become members of the commissions. Thus, the total number of oppositionists in district electoral commissions is 42. As we have informed, the oppositional parties had offered the CEC a list of 138 candidates for of district electoral commissions.

Other members of district electoral commissions (more than 1300 persons) were nominated by some groups of citizens, labour collectives and public associations.

According to leaders of oppositional parties, sessions of regional executive committees were the district electoral commissions were composed, were non-transparent. Not all executive committees have allowed opposition representatives to be present at these sessions. The reasons for that haven’t been explained by the authorities, however.

“They were just reading out a list previously made up by somebody, and said that these people are included into the commissions. Why some of them are included, and some not, and who had submitted applications to become members of the commissions, is not known at all,” the leader of the Belarusian Party of Communists Syarhei Kalyakin says.