Central Election Commission Refuses to Comment on Detention of Circulation of Narodnaia volia

In the evening of 6 March the chair of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Belarus Mikalai Lazavik stated to the press-service of the Belarusian Association of Journalists that the CEC wouldn’t give evaluation to the publications of the number of the non-state newspaper Narodnaia volia that was detained by the police. He also expressed his conviction it was within the competency of the Ministry of Information.

However, Siarhei Ivanou, the chair of the law and order department of Vitsebsk Regional Board of Internal Affairs, informed the BAJ press-service on 6 Mach he submitted the inquiry for evaluation of the content of the detained number of the newspaper directly to the CEC. Before this, in his talk with the chief editor of Narodnaia volia Iosif Siaredzich Mr Ivanou said he suspected the newspaper in violation of articles 45 and 48 of the Electoral Code by a number of articles that were published in the detained number.