Voting under Pressure

Members of “Viasna” made a photo of the advertisement standing beside the watchman’s table at the entrance of the hostel of Medicine Academy of Post-graduate Studies. The ad urges the students to vote before the election day: “Dear doctors! We ask you to vote early. Inform the hostel commandant about your early voting”. No one has the rule to control participation or non-participation of a person in the election and moreover, no laws demand to report an official about one’s vote.

Most probably, the authorities are repeating the scenario of forcible early voting employed in the elections of 2000-2001 with the aim to manipulate the results. The form of the final protocol without specification of results for voting before and during the election day, adopted by the Central Electoral Commission, can serve as an evidence.