The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)’s observers have found that the Belarusian authorities are making an active effort to raise public awareness about the upcoming parliamentary elections,” the CIS observation mission noted in a report issued on Friday.
According to the report, the website of the central election commission and its printed materials contain information about the addresses and telephone numbers of district election commissions. Decisions of local executive and administrative bodies on the boundaries of electoral districts have been published in local media. Information posters have been put up in cities and villages.
CIS long-term observers continue to familiarize themselves with the work of district election commissions, the mission said, noting that observers had already visited more than 60 out of the 110 district commissions as of August 17.
According to the mission, the formation of precinct election commissions was completed according to the schedule required by the Electoral Code. The 6,031 precinct commissions that were formed include representatives of “workers’ collectives,” nominees of non-governmental organizations and people nominated through the collection of voter signatures.
“Representatives of nine political parties were granted membership on precinct election commissions,” the report said. “Each political party was given the opportunity to delegate one representative to act as the central election commission’s advisory member without voting rights. This opportunity was used by the “Spravedlivy Mir” Belarusian Party of the Left, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Communist Party of Belarus.”
The CIS observation mission welcomes the participation of national observers in the monitoring the parliamentary elections, “which will help strengthen public control over the election process and make it transparent,” the mission said, noting that more than 400 observers representing different political parties and non-governmental organizations had already been accredited by district and precinct election commissions.
The CIS observation mission currently includes 47 observers, including 35 long-term ones. // BelaPAN
