Andrei Sannikov and Uladzimir Kobets met with international observers

They informed the ODIHR/OSCE mission about the facts which demonstrate that the election cannot be considered free and democratic.

The meeting of the Belarusian presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov and his campaign chief Uladzimir Kobets with the ODIHR/OSCE representatives was held in Minsk on November 23.

As Uladzimir Kobets said to the press-service of “European Belarus” civil campaign Gert Arens, Head of the OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission, was interested by the process of the election campaign in Belarus, the opinion of Andrei Sannikov about the events related to agitation. The head of t hemission told about the aims and objectives of the OSCE/ODIHR.

Andrei Sannikov told about the facts demonstrating that the election could not be considered free and democratic. In particular, he attracted attention of the OSCE observers to the facts of pressure on members of his initiative group: dismissals, threats in educational institutions, detentions and politically motivated criminal cases. He also told about the outragepous incident in Babrujsk, when Liudmila Ruban was threatened by deprivation of parental rights for her adopted children in case she continues collection of signatures for nomination of Andrei Sannikov.

The chief of Sannikov’s campaign Uladzimir Kobets told about difficult conditions for agitation in Hrodna, Mahilyou, Mozyr and other cities. He also told about delay of publishing the campaign materials through the fault of the CEC. Thus, a financial representative of Sannikov received an identity document after 5 p.m. on Friday, when all banks were closed till Monday already. As said by Kobets, such a situation is common for all candidates, and almost all of them faced difficulties in printing campaign materials because of that.

“The head of the mission has demonstrated a good knowledge of the situation. He knows that the conditions with places for agitation in the capital and in the provinces differ greatly. The ODIHR/OSCE mission and its observers in the regions closely monitor developments of the situation, and besides, Mr Arens offered to organize exchange of information with representatives of regional headquarters. Representatives of the mission have also noted almost complete absence of external signs of election campaign, despite of the fact that less than a month is left till the election,” Uladzimir Kobets said.