Do participants of early voting vote twice?

On December 15 at the polling station #12 in Slutsk observers recorded the incident when one voter cast his vote two times.

Dzyanis Balakir, an observer of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, and Yuliya Balakir, an observer representing a group of citizens, are working at the polling station #12 which is situated in the school #8 of Slutsk. “We studied in this school,” observers say. “That is why we know members of the polling station commission. Some of them were our teachers.”

As said by Dzyanis Balakir, at about the noon a voter, a teacher of the school Iryna Yanhalenka, came to the polling station. The woman showed her passport, was given a ballot paper and cast her vote. At about 5.30 p.m. this woman came again, showed her passport, received a ballot paper, and went to the polling booth again, “Human Rights Activists for Free Election” report.

“We drew up a statement addressed to the chairperson of the commission, Tatsyana Trusava, and attached a formal note, where we recorded the violation. Tatsyana Trusava is the headmistress of the secondary school #8,” Dzyanis Balakir says. “The secretary of the commissiom, Veranika Vidzenina (my form tutor in the past) refused to sign it. I told that the OSCE observers will come there the next day. And I was told in reply: “I do not care even if the president arrives.” Members of the commission reached Tatsyana Trusava on the phone. She offered us to hush up this affair. We insisted on their accepting our application.”

When Dzyanis Balakir left the school, a member of the commission Svyatlana Shumitskaya came up to him and promised to write an application to a relevant authority, and expressed regret that once he “had not been imprisoned for participation in opposition rallies” by teachers.

Besides, the number of voters who took part in the election on December 15 as recorded by the observers, differs from the one recorded by the polling station commission. “We have reckoned 87 voters, while the polling station commission – 95 voters,” observers say. Yuliya and Dzyanis Balakir state that they had not left the polling station during the day, and worked in turns when necessary.