Harry Pahanyajla: CEC abuses authority

The court of Maskouski district of Minsk has examined the claim of the well-known lawyer, the chairman of the legal department of Belarusian Helsinki Committee Harry Pahanyajla.

The grounds for the claim was a decision of the Central Election Commission of September 15, 2010 #49, which limits the nomination of observers from parties and public associations to election commissions. The court decided that the CEC has a right to issue regulatory documents, while the human rights activist finds this right contradicting the Belarusian laws.

Thus, in the previous election parties and associations had a right to send their representatives to all election commissions, and now according to this decision, only to the CEC. Observers to all lower level commissions should be nominated by a lower structures of these parties and associations of the corresponding level: from regional to regional ones, from district ones to district ones… However in many cases it is simply impossible as parties and public associations do not have registered primary organizations. And such registration is often absent as the authorities deny registration to parties and movements without explaining reasons.

According to Harry Pahanyajla, having adopted a number of restrictive measures for sending observers to commissions, the authorities “nip a possibility to create effective observation over the election process.”

“The authorities do not want large-scale monitoring, and obviously want to limit observation by party members and human rights activists,” Harry Pahanyajla said. “It must be caused by disinclination of the authorities to be subject to harsh criticism for violations.” Thus, observers work is regulated not by the Electoral Code, but directly by a decision of the CEC, which is illegal and unauthorized.