Human rights activists: Mass forcing to early voting
40- 8.12.2010, 10:05
Personnel of state-run agencies and enterprises continue to suffer from pressure of their administration, human rights activists claim.
According to the campaign “Human Rights Activists for Free Elections”, administrative resource is still widely used all regions of the country to secure mass early voting.
As BelaPAN learnt from lawyer Valyantsin Stefanovich, a coordinator of the campaign, observers from regions report on ongoing pressure of administrations of state-run agencies and enterprises on their employees or students to force them take part in advance voting.
“Ideological officers were instructed at special meetings this week to ensure maximum early voting turnout. Administration of some enterprises, for example Milk processing plant in Hlubokaye, specifies the persons who must vote earlier,” Stefanovich said.
According to him, there are the recorded facts when representatives of administrations and officials as well as MPs and members of local councils addressed the labour collectives calling for early voting. “Advance voting calls are usually accompanied with agitation for the incumbent president,” the human rights activist says.
“At the same time, head of the Central Election Commission of Belarus Lidziya Yarmoshyna said pn November 26 during an online press conference on “Komsomolskaya Pravda v Belarusi” website said in response to a question on responsibility of officials for forcing to early voting that citizens should report on such cases to prosecutor’s agencies. Yarmoshyna explained such actions fell under general elements of administrative offence ‘hindering free expression of will’ that provides for a fine,” the lawyer noted.
As Stefanovich said, human rights activists are ready to help people who are brave enough to inform prosecutors about facts of forcing to early voting.
“Moreover, we are going to create a section on our website to publish photos and video of how people are being made to vote early. Let prosecutors respond to these cases ‘over the facts of publishing in media,” the human rights activist stressed.
