Michael Scanlan: “In US people also come together and wait for results of election”

Michael Scanlan, Chargé d'Affaires ad interim of the United States in Belarus, has made a statement for journalists.

The statement was mostly dedicated to the presidential election in Belarus.

Answering the question about intentions of Belarusians to gather on the square on the Election Day, December 19 at 8 p.m., Michael Scanlan told how elections are held in Europe and the US. He noted that “in many places people gather together to wait for the results of the vote, candidates gather together with voters who support them.” Mr Scanlan stressed that the main thing for people is to be sure that their votes would be taken into account. This make the process legitimate, people are sure of this process.

Mr Scanlan turned attention to the fact that when covering the election topic, Belarusian state-run mass media mostly focus on the work of the Central Election Commission and the president, and almost ignore independent candidates, which is noted by the interim report of the ODHR/OSCE. “It means that voters are not informed about the candidates, and they would not be able to make an informed decision,” Scanlan said.

The diplomat noted that as before a detailed explanation of the procedure of the vote count and rights of observers are still absent. He reminded that in the countries where elections are recognized democratic, during the vote count every ballot paper is demonstrated to members of the election commission and observers.

“We hope that on December 19 the vote count would take place in the same way,” he stated.

By the way, as said by the diplomat, improvement of relations between countries is possible only with the respect of fundamental rights and freedoms of a person by Minsk.

Scanlan underlined that this issue had been emphasized in the memorandum on mutual understanding, signed on December 1 in Astana by heads of foreign political agencies of the two countries Hillary Clinton and Syarhei Martynau.

“Respect to human rights and democracy are the corner stone in the issue of improving our relations,” the diplomat said. “The governments of the US and Belarus have admitted that these problematic issues are in the in the centre of attention. We welcome this vision and hope for progress in these areas.”

Considering the issue of the US sanctions against Belarus in November, the US noted that “the situation remains status quo,” but they hope for positive changes. “The election is a unique opportunity to improve the situation in a wider context of human rights. Legitimacy of the electoral process is the most important in holding the election. It means legitimacy of anyone who wins the electoral race,” stated the Chargé d'Affaires.

Like the ODIHR/OSCE, the US note positive changes as collection of signatures and registration of the candidates were more open than in the previous election, and candidates had more opportunities to hold pickets, Scanlan underlined, however, the diplomat said, the process of signatures checking was not transparent.

Scanlan has also noted a strong influence of the authorities on the process of forming of precinct election commissions, which include almost no representatives of oppositional organizations, and repeated the conclusions of the ODIHR/OSCE that 86-90% of time on air of the state-run TV channels were given to Lukashenka.

“I do not understand how it is possible to speak for 7-8 minutes in the news item about the election and mention only one person, not mentioning the oppositional candidates at all,” Scanlan said. As said by him it shows that there could be no informed choice of a vote with such work of the mass media.