Pro-regime candidates for deputies create “assistance groups” for themselves

So-called “assistance groups for election campaign” have been created in almost all regional executive committees of the country. They exist even there where chairmen of executive committees run in the election.

As said by the head of the administration of the regional executive committee of Staryja Darohi Volha Parkhimovich, the assistance groups” are responsible for practical assistance.

“The group’s duties include issues of practical assistance: granting premises for the commission’s work, giving the commission communication equipment, repair works necessary for polling stations to answer to norms and be aesthetic, and providing computers for commissions. The chairmen of the electoral commission can address the member of the regional headquarters to solve with all these problems. And we help them,” Parkhimovich said in an interview to European Radio.

The official from the regional executive committee explained in a rather vivid way why elections cannot take place without the help of executive committees: she compared elections with harvesting.

“Now we are engaged in issues of harvesting. We are taking part in that, there are responsible persons from the executive committee, and there is head office for harvesting, for granting assistance to farms. The head office is created for the harvest time, forage conservation time and for elections period,” she noted.

Heads of the culture department are needed to organize concerts at polling stations. The head of the electric communication department is in charge of a phone line functioning. The chairman of the regional provisions department is in charge of snack-bars at polling stations.

The European Radio for Belarus called reception rooms of more than 10 regional executive committees, and in all of them they were answered such headquarters had been created.

For instance, it exists in Pastavy executive committee, where its chairman Eduard Kazura is to compete for a deputy seat with non-party pensioner Uladzimir Barouka.

The pre-election and service headquarters works in Palesse constituency No. 43, where the chairman of Elski regional executive committee Syarhei Kanoplich competes with a “deputy” Syarhei Kastsyan and a UCP representative Mikalay Haurylyonak.

In the town of Zelva, where its chairman of the executive committee Leanid Elshayevich intends to become a deputy in Vaukavysk constituency No. 48, such headquarters is supervied by the head of organizational and cadres department of the executive committee Iryna Puzach.

The leader of the human rights organization “Belarusian Helsinki Committee Aleh Hulak says that officials do not violate the law by creating such headquarters:

“Technically creation of such headquarters is not a violation of the electoral code as such. It is important how they would act in the future and how independent commissions will be. If commissions contain majority of representatives of the executive power and state bodies, this gives grounds to doubt their independence”.