OSCE PA President: We'll Check CEC's Good Intentions in Loco

IF the Central Election Comission will order the divisional election commissions work “transparently and openly” during the votes counting, the observers would highly praise it, President of OSCE PA Riccardo Migliory told.

“We had a really long discussion with the Chairperson of the Central Election Commission on the Belarusian election legislation. The most prominent was the promise to allow the international observers to the polling stations where the bulletins are going to be counted,” Migliori said.

Migliori noted that in most cases, observers saw “things that cannot be seen anywhere else: during the vote counting observers must keep 15–20 meters away from the bulletins.”

“When I met Foreign Minister Martynau (currently ex-FM Siarhiej Martynau) in Rome in August, he told me such situations are caused by faulty interpretations of the rules by the chairpersons of the election commissions.”

The OSCE PA delegation was also curious about the lack of opposition candidates registered for the elections and particularly the denial to register Aliaksandr Milinkievich. BelaPAN says.

“We were explained that Milinkievich’s papers had not corresponded the set norms. We met Mr. Milinkievich yesterday and he explained us why we was not going even to appeal to the court: he considered the refusal of registration politically laden and beforehand coordinated,” Migliori said.

The OSCE PA delegation was also told there had been few applications from opposition candidates and they all were satisfied.

Migliori noted there would be 90 OSCE PA observers and also some short term observers from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights will arrive to monitor parliamentary elections on September 23.

“We hope to cover 10–15 per cent of polling stations out of total 6.000. We will control the free access to bulletin counting and also the absence of pressure on voters.

“We are going to check the good intentions of the Central Election Committees in loco,” he noted.

“In Italy, we say ‘If those are roses, they will blossom sometime.’ Now we see only thorns.”

The “thorns” according to Migliori are political prisoners.

“If some potential candidates are imprisoned, it is already a restriction. The situations with Yulia Tymoshenko in Ukraine, Zmicier Dashkievich in Belarus or any similar are the same,” the OSCE PA President said.

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