CEC does not accept Tatsiana Rysevets’ complaint for consideration
The district election commission considered Tatsiana Ryseviets’ application for registration of her initiative group on Sunday, 27th, the last day before the deadline. The commission failed to consider the application and make the decision on Saturday. By majority of votes the commission denied registration to Tatsiana Ryseviets, activist of the local movement against construction of a chemical plant in Druzhny.
Members of her initiative group, headed by Siarhei Abrazouski, were tried many times for organizing protests against the construction of the chemical plant. The initiative group complained about the denial of registration to the Central Election Commission. However, the CEC refused to accept the complaint for consideration.
The complaint was about the violation of the election law, i.e. the pressure on some members of the activist’s initiative group. Three out of 26 initiative group members experienced pressure from their employers, and had to withdraw their signatures under threat of losing a job. Tatsiana managed to record a telephone conversation with those people who said they were very sorry and asked her to understand their situation. Tatsiana thought that such a recording was a good proof of pressure.
Pukhavichy district election commission # 73 refused to register the activit’s initiative group. The decision was published on July 28th. Te next day the head of her group Siarhei Abrazouski sent a complaint to the Central Election Commission. However, he physically did not manage to collect the signatures of all initiative group members under the complaint, and added the list to the complaint only on July 30th. The CEC explained, the group had missed the deadline.
- What are you going to do next? – we asked Siarhei Abrazouski, and he only shrug his shoulders.
- What can we do… This fact is a bright proof of how “democratic” the elections are. We can only talk about morality. Such actions are not only violating the election law, but also the moral law.
Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections
