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Valiantsin Stsefanovich: Phantom Parties Take Part In “Elections”

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Valiantsin Stsefanovich: Phantom Parties Take Part In “Elections”

The CEC has picked out its own people from fake parties for electoral commissions.

Deputy chairman of the Human Rights Center Viasna Valiantsin Stsefanovich said that in his interview to charter97.org.

– At the future “elections” for the “house of representatives” the Belarusians’ votes will be counted by people from phantom parties. Recently, a journalist has visited legal addresses of such associations as the Belarusian Agrarian Party, the Labour and Justice Party and the Social and Sports Party, and found out that there was no information on some of them at all, and some were not found at the specified addresses.

– I have long had this idea – to ask journalists to find their offices. There is, for example, such a wonderful party, which is called the Social and Sports. We have been following its activity for a long time. And we have noticed that at all the “elections” it is actively put forward in the election commissions, though it nominates very few candidates. During the present “parliamentary elections” they have not nominated even one. It’s strange: the party does not actually participate in the elections, but it has put forward 660 people in the election commissions! 639 of them have been included in the commissions.

The share of all the political parties in the commissions is miniscule. It reflects the political system of Belarus, where the main organizers of the “elections” are the public organizations, which cannot nominate candidates according to the law, but not the political parties, which should be the main actors of the electoral process.

Five pro-government organizations traditionally organize “elections” in Belarus. I mean the Belarusian Republican Youth Union, Belaya Rus, The Communist Party of Belarus, the Belarusian Women's Union and the Belarusian Public Association of Veterans. Such an approach is very selective.

If the opposition parties’ offices were difficult to find, were not at the place of their registration, they would have been eliminated long ago. I remember such situations, when parties were liquidated, but everyone closes his eyes to that, because such parties are needed to organize the “elections.” Only ten per cent of the nominated opposition representatives have been included in the election commissions, state representatives have amounted to 89 per cent. That is, we can see an absolutely discriminatory approach. I do not think that members of pro-government parties know the electoral law much better, than the representatives of the opposition ones.

– You’ve said that the situation with the phantom parties is against the law.

– This situation is not normal, because the requirements of the Political Parties Act are common for everyone. Violations are obvious here. How can it be that a party cannot be found at the place of its registration? It is against the law, and the registration authority should react to that somehow. As far as the opposition parties are issued a warning immediately, and two parties have been eliminated.

If these parties cannot be found at their legal addresses, it is terrible to imagine what is happening in their regional structures. These facts indicate that the registration authority should look closely at this situation and check what's going on there, whether they keep relevant records, what kind of parties they are and so on.

I, for example, have never heard about some of these parties. Lidziya Yarmoshyna says they pick over the best representatives in the commissions. I have lived in this country since my birth and have been engaged in active civil activities for twenty years, but I have never heard of some parties, of their political platform, I cannot name any of their members, but they are represented in the commissions.

– Are OSCE representatives aware of this situation?

– We reflect this in our reports. We traditionally consider and show discriminatory approach to the formation of precinct commissions. We have reflected it, it all can be clearly seen, so the OSCE, of course, is aware of it, they read our reports.

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