Not only result of election in Belarus, but its quality central to Europe

Heads of the Foreign Ministries of Poland and Germany have named the necessary conditions for holding the presidential election in Belarus.

The presidential election in Belarus must be considerably different from all the previous election campaigns, in the respect of freedom and transparency, stated Foreign Ministers of Poland and Germany Radoslaw Sikorski and Guido Westerwelle at a joint press conference in Minsk.

“A democratic election is not only a fair vote count, but the situation in the country many months and weeks before the election,” Radoslaw Sikorski said. “We have taken the president of Belarus at his word that this election would be different from the previous ones. Not only a honest vote count is meant, but participation of opposition representatives in the work of election commissions, and free access of candidates for presidency to the state-controlled mass media.”

“I underline that free and fair election does not mean a possibility to cast one’s vote on the polling day for the different people, not the ones in power, but a possibility for the candidates to propagate their ideas freely and unrestrictedly, to have access to the media,” Guido Westerwelle stated.

The head of the Polish diplomacy noted that “the previous elections in Belarus were not fair.”

“For me fair elections are the elections when the result is not known in advance. We are experienced politicians, and we know what a political system Belarus has,” Sikorski said.

Explaining his visit to Belarus, the Polish minister said: “Our visit is a demonstration of solidarity with the Belarusian nation, which is a European nation.”

“The heads of states always pay the price for their decisions,” underlined the Polish Foreign Minister. Sikorski reiterated that in case Belarus follows the path of democratization, it can count upon the assistance of the EU, 3 billion Euros. “For instance, Moldova, which territory is by far smaller as compared to Belarus, in the nearest future is to receive $2 billion of aid from the International Monetary Fund, European Development Bank, in the neighborhood program framework. Belarus could count on a great help,” Sikorski believes.

Speaking about the chances of investments coming to Belarus, the head of the Foreign Ministry of Germany stressed that “a good condition for investments to the country is respect to human rights.”

As said by Guido Westerwelle, “Belarus’ road to Europe goes over the bridge, standing on four pillars: democracy, rule of law, human rights, free and fair elections.”

Answering the question of charter97.org, whether Germany is discussing the situation in Belarus wit the leadership of Russia now, and whether common approaches to the presidential election are being developed, considering the fact that Moscow had started to make statements about mass violations of human rights in Belarus, including electoral rights, Guido Westerwelle noted:”” No. Now together with Mr. Sikorski we are discussing the relations of Belarus with the EU.”

The Foreign Minister of Germany stated that on return home he and Sikorski would make a joint address to their European colleagues with a call to send representatives of their countries to Belarus for election monitoring. “The possible largest number of observers should come to monitor these elections very closely,” Guido Westerwelle said.