US State Department Slams Parliamentary Elections in Belarus

The US State Departments has criticised the undemocratic and non-transparent nature of the parliamentary elections in Belarus.

“The September 23 parliamentary elections in Belarus fell short of international standards and their conduct cannot be considered free or fair,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement on Monday.

“The preliminary assessment of the OSCE election observation mission found that the elections were ‘not competitive from the start.’ The observer mission cited the limitation of choice for voters, the lack of impartiality on the part of the election commission, and the lack of proper counting procedures,” Nuland said.

“The United States urges the authorities to take steps to meet Belarus’s international commitments to hold genuinely democratic elections and to foster respect for human rights. Enhanced respect for democracy and human rights in Belarus, including the release and rehabilitation of all political prisoners, remains central to improving bilateral relations with the United States,” Nuland mentioned in the statement.

Earlier, the OSCE Observation Mission preliminary report stated that competition was limited and many OSCE commitments on citizens' democratic rights to associate, to stand as candidates and to express themselves freely were not respected in the September 18-23 parliamentary elections in Belarus

Belarusian opposition entities has also did not admit the official results of the elections as not valid.

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