Early voting – old rules, no passport needed

April 20 is the start of early voting at the local council elections, which makes it easier to rig the results.

The early voting will last until April 25, the last voting day.

As Radio Svaboda notes, one can vote even not showing a passport.

The early voting has the same rules as voting at previous local council “elections”. Changes in the electoral legislation didn’t touch on this sector. The opposition offered to cancel or permit early voting only for those who have documented grounds, or reduce the term of early voting up to 3 days.

Elections expert Syarhei Alfer said why the authorities don’t want to change anything.

“Early voting can be used for a guaranteed victory of a certain candidate in the constituency. The rate of early voters at the last local council “elections” was about 25 percent. If these ballots are rigged, and turnout is 50 percent, it means that the candidate ha already won. It doesn’t depend on the votes of people who come to ballot stations on the ballot day,” Alfer says.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) took a decision last week allowing people to vote at local council elections without showing a passport. CEC spokesperson Pavel Lazavik told at a session that passport can be replaced by:

“a military card, a service certificate of an official, a pension certificate, a student card, a notice from the internal affairs agencies given instead of a lost passport, or a residence permit for Russian citizens living in Belarus.”

Syarhei Alfer thinks the expanded list pursues two aims – attracting as many people as possible to voting and to increase possibilities of rigging.

“In real fact, a voting certificate should have been introduced. Or it would be necessary to use only three documents for voting – a passport, a military card, or a notice of absent of the passport. In this case, it would be possible not to doubt about falsifications,” the expert noted.