Navapolack: Woman is Told to Leave Hospital Despite Threat of Miscarriage

On the eve of the early voting, October 5, Tatsiana Ladukas got registered as an observer at polling station No. 5 in Navapolack. In the afternoon she felt unwell and was taken to hospital with the diagnosis “threat of miscarriage”.

October 8, members of the election commission phoned to Tatsiana Ladukas while she was in hospital and asked her to come to the sitting at which they would consider the appeal filed by her during the registration. The appeal concerned the transparent calculation of votes. The woman decided to go there, Viasna reports.

Thus, she left the hospital for two hours. On her return she noticed an increased attention on the part of the personnel. On October 10 the duty physician Hanna Shnipava accused her of violating the hospital regime by “walking to polling stations” and told her to immediately leave the hospital. She also said that the head of the hospital had received a telephone call from investigating authorities, who reported about her visit to the polling station. The medic also stated that Tatsiana Ladukas had also left the hospital on October 10, which the patient denies.

In the evening of October 10 Tatsiana Ladukas left the hospital. Then she appealed to the Navapolack City Prosecutor's Office with the request to find out who and why had reported to the hospital about her accreditation at the polling station as an observer, as far it was not her absence from the hospital, but the visit to the polling station which was interpreted as a violation of the hospital regime.