Masty district: representative of Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada tried to be elected PEC Chairperson… to no avail
The first sitting of the
Lunenski precinct election commission #19 in the Masty district was marked by
an interesting incident: one of its members, the representative of the
Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada Liavon Karpovich tried to become its head.
At the beginning of the sitting, the Chairperson of the local village council
Nina Voran read Article 44 of the Electoral Code about the powers of precinct
commissions and declared that the Masty District Executive Committee, the Masty
Council and its Chairperson Valery Tabala proposed to elect Viktar Chernik,
headmaster of the local secondary school, the commission Chairperson.
’I consider it an evident violation of Article 11, part 3 of the Electoral Code
that clearly determines that ‘commissions are completely independent within the
limits of their powers from the state organs and decisions of political parties
and other public associations during the preparation and holding of elections’.
The ‘recommendations’ that were voiced by Nina Voran make use of the
administrative resources. Those who would have dared to vote against the
proposed candidacy or even abstain from voting would have endangered his
official position or social status. Thus, the first sitting of the Lunenski PEC
#19 started with a violation of the Electoral Code,’ states Mr. Karpovich.
The BSDH representative proposed his candidacy for the PEC Chairperson. He
explained his proposal by the fact that the administration of the commission
had made many mistakes and violations during the previous election and said
that it would be logical to change the administration in this case.
Predictably enough, 16 members of the commission voted for Viktar Chernik and
only Liavon voted for himself. Independent observers consider it as evidence
that the scenario of the electoral campaign is defined in advance by the
executive authorities and election commission are subordinated to them.
Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections
