International observers: What “election” with Yarmoshyna?

OSCE PA observers already report about mass violations during the “election”.

As Michal Szczerba, an OSCE PA observer and Poland's Civic Platform member, told Polish TVN 24, observers already have information about violations: non-registration of a number of pro-opposition candidates and refusal to include opposition activists in election commissions. “We have information that personnel at enterprises was told about the preferred candidates to vote for and that students were made by administration of their universities to vote early,” Szcherba said.

He said observers had a meeting with head of the Central Election Commission Lidzia Yarmoshyna and political parties representatives. “We had many questions relating to the experience of the past years,” Szczerba stressed. “I asked about silent vote counting. Commission members whisper the number of counted votes to the commission chair or write the figures on a sheet of paper instead of  saying them loudly. International observers don't have the opportunity to check if the final result is right. Yarmoshyna says there are no instructions regarding the vote counting procedure. It depends on chairs of commissions,” the Polish  observer added.

All election campaigns in Belarus since 1996 have not been recognized honest and fair by the OSCE. For this reason visa restrictions were imposed on CEC head Lidzia Yarmoshyna and CEC secretary Mikalai Lazavik by the EU and the US.

“We should keep in mind that the CEC has been led by the same person, who is banned from entering the EU, for 16 years. It demonstrates systematic violations and selective approach to candidates by the Belarusian authorities,” Szczerba said.

The OSCE PA observation delegation has more than 70 members. Besides Szczerba, Poland is represented there by Henryk Smolarz (Polish People's Party), Barbara Bartuś and Andrzej Jaworski (Law and Justice Party).