Another Method Of Manipulation With Voters’ Turnout Revealed

How come the voters’ turnout in the districts, all the working-age population of which has left for seasonal labor, makes over 99%?

The majority of Belarusians traditionally participate in the “presidential elections”. The voters’ turnout remains high, to a great extent, due to the early voting – all but half of the voters have been forced to participate thereof via administrative methods, Nasha Niva writes.

The voters’ turnout at the presidential election-2015 officially made 87,2%. By itself, this is a very high figure. Much more than in our neighboring and more distant countries. The turnout mark makes one wonder even more if one looks not just at the all-country figures, but separately in the regions.

If we trust the official statistics, then in some areas of the country the voters’ turnout at the ‘presidential election” in 2015 made over 99%! Allegedly, less than a thousand voters failed to vote at the election-2015 approximately in half of the districts of Belarus.

The most unusual examples are Cherykau district of Mahiliou region and Beshankovichy district of Vitsebsk region. In 2015, in the latter one, only 99 voters out of 12 546 failed to vote in 2015. As for Cherykau district, according to the official statistics, only 84 voters out of 10108 didn’t participate in the election!

Official statistics: the number of voters who did not vote in the election in 2015 in the districts of Belarus (excluding the regional centers and five other major cities)

As seen in the map, incredibly high (the districts marked red) and very high (districts marked yellow) turnout was allegedly recorded in the East of the country.

These turnout figures appear alarming as many residents of the eastern part of Belarus periodically leave for seasonal labor, mainly to Russia. Most of them continue to be considered as voters at their permanent place of residence, but in the reality, during the election period they are outside the country.

In some districts, the number of labor migrants makes up to several per cent of the working-age population. Let us presume, during the election period in early October 2015, at least 1 % of the working-age population of Cherykau district was either in Russia doing some seasonal labour, or in any other country due to any other reason, still being registered as voters in Cherykau district.

One percent of the 10 108 voters is about 100 people. Even a rough estimate puts into question that only 84 voters didn’t vote in the entire district. It turns out that in addition to voters who in the reality were not in the place of registration at the time of the election, the turnout appears to be 100%, if not more.

Thus, given the scale of emigration from Belarus and labor migration of the residents of the eastern regions of Belarus, the turnout of 98-99% in many areas of the country (Liozna, Slaugarad, Krasnapolle and many others) looks fantastic.