The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for 28 Aug 2012

28.08.2012 Candidate registration stage did not meet democratic standards, say activists of Campaign for Free Elections

The candidate registration stage showed that Belarus’ House of Representatives elections are being conducted in accordance with the same old scenario and do not meet standards for democratic elections, Viktar Karnyayenka, a coordinator of the Campaign for Free Elections, told reporters in Minsk on Monday.

28.08.2012 Mahiliou activists appeal confiscation of election observation guidelines

Yury Novikau and Halina Lisitsyna, activists of the For Free Elections observation campaign, have lodged a complaint with Mahiliou prosecuting, executive and police authorities, appealing an incident of 23 August when hundreds of election observation materials were seized by the city police from Yury Novikau’s car.

28.08.2012 Slutsk observer appeals signature verification results

Vital Amialkovich, observer registered in Slutsk constituency election commission No. 67, has lodged a complaint with the Central Election Commission, saying that the verification of signatures submitted to the commission was not legal.

28.08.2012 Baranavichy police turn down election violation claims by local human rights defender

Baranavichy observer Siarhei Housha has received a reply from the city’s police department, saying that the minutes published by constituency election commission No. 5 was a sample form, despite the fact Mr. Housha argued that the paper was rigged by the commission’s members.

28.08.2012 BCD Secretary Dzianis Sadouski sentenced to 10 days' arrest

Dzianis Sadouski, Secretary of the Belarusian Christian Democracy Party, has been detained by Minsk police this afternoon, as he was transporting printed materials campaigning for election boycott.

28.08.2012 Zmitser Dashkevich sentenced to one more year in prison

Zmitser Dashkevich, leader of the Young Front movement serving his two-year sentence in a penal colony in the town of Hlybokaye, Vitsebsk region, has been sentenced to one more year in jail on charges of violating prison regime.

28.08.2012 Smarhon court upholds ban on picket of solidarity with political prisoners

On 27 August, Judge Alina Kindra of Smarhon District Court dismissed a complaint by local human rights defender Ales Dzerhachou, who appealed a ban on holding a picket of solidarity with Belarusian political prisoners imposed by chairman of the district’s executive committee Mechyslau Hoi.

28.08.2012 Election campaigning banned in most villages of Kalinkavichy district

Election pickets can be hold in only 20 out of 130 villages of the district of Kalinkavichy, Homel region, as ordered by a decision of the district’s executive committee.