Lieutenant Colonel Kazlou: “Police is not required to prevent electoral fraud”

Throwing in of ballot papers is happening exactly in the moment when policemen are asked to inspect what is going on outside the polling station.

Belarusian police has announced that it changes to enhanced order of service because of the presidential election. Will it help to be protected during the early voting? What does it mean, the enhanced order of service, announced by police?

Tow years ago during the presidential election a retired lieutenant colonel Mikalai Kazlou was on duty at one of the polling stations of Frunzenski district of Minsk. Mikalai Kazlou witnessed how members of the election commission threw in “fake ballot papers: into the ballot box, but the officer’s command has not responded to the report of the policeman, and the falsifiers had not been brought to account. As said by Kazlou, though policemen guard the ballot boxes, even on the 24-hour basis, does not guarantee preservation of ballot boxes. As before, policemen are instructed to do as they are told by heads of election commissions, Mikalai Kazlou believes.

“Ballot papers are thrown in ballot boxes exactly in the moment when a policeman is asked to inspect what is going on outside the polling station,” Mikalai Kazlou said.

Kazlou says that policemen who are on duty in a polling station are warned about possible provocations by opposition, and it is not mentioned in the instructions that members of the election commission could violate the law. No one sets as an aim to prevent electoral fraud, Lieutenant colonel Kazlou states.

“The main thing which is absent in briefing and which should be there: to charge with a task to prevent rigging of the election results. If such a task would be assigned, I think it would be difficult for members of the commission to rig the vote. But such a task is not assigned by anyone, and it is avoided on purpose. However, there are recommendations to guards to carry out requests of the chairman of the commission, which as a result gives an opportunity to rig the election,” Mikalai Kazlou is convinced.