More election related trials in regions
Mahiliou
On 8 November the Leninski District Court of Mahiliou considered three cases
concerning the non-inclusion of opposition members in precinct election
commissions. The democrats' lawsuits were turned down in all three cases. The court
declared that the decisions concerning the formation of the precinct election
commissions were lawful and met the criteria according to which people had been
included in them. The court verdicts are without appeal.
The human rights defender Barys Bukhel notes that the court verdicts are almost
identical.
’The court didn’t grant our inquiry for presenting us the documents concerning
the nomination of members to the election commission (which includes the
minutes of the nomination and information about their places of work, the
occupied positions and the date of birth. The personal information was
necessary to show the court that almost all members of the commission belonged
to the state vertical. In fact, the court deprived us of the means for proving
our arguments and violated our right to fair trial by dismissing my motion.
Thus, it was impossible to prove or disprove our suspicions. The court also
refused to call a witness, which is another violation of the court
proceedings,’ said the human rights defender.
The non-inclusion of opposition representatives in the PECs was motivated mainly by the lack of experience of work in the commissions of such a kind and by the
age of some applicants.
’I learned that one of the members of a commission was
just 18 years old and asked a rhetorical question of the court, if she had a
sufficient experience of work in the commission. Moreover, I noted that the
commission consisted of supporters of one candidate – Aliaksandr Lukashenka,
and there were no objective reasons not to include the oppositionists, as three
more persons could have been included before reaching the legally established
limit of members,’ commented Mr. Bukhel.
Bear in mind that the NGO BFP Adradzhenne
appealed the non-inclusion of 30 representatives, the Belarusian Leftist
Party Fair World – 19
representatives, and the Mahiliou
Human Rights
Center – 8
representatives.
Vitsebsk
Pavel Levinau had been nominated to PEC #35 in Vitsebsk by about 150
residents of Vitsebsk, but hadn’t been included in it. His lawsuit against the
non-inclusion in the PEC was considered by Judge of the Pershamaiski District
Court of Vitsebsk Volha Illiushonak. Though the trial lasted as long as about 8
hours, the judge too the side of the state authorities.
The court studied evidence, including the recording that had been made during
the formation of the precinct commission. The plaintiffs tried to prove that
the PECs had
been formed without any discussion of the candidacies of the people who had
been nominated to them. The court ignored this argument and declared that the
formation of the commissions was completely lawful.
Moreover, Mr. Levinau discovered a number of violations of the electoral
legislation. In particular, some electors signed in support of the nomination
of another candidate, A.Markouski, after putting signatures in his support.
This is prohibited by the law and the signatures for A.Markouski were to have
been annulled. In this case A.Markouski wouldn’t have been included in the PEC
as he would have less than 10 signatures for his nomination. Mr. Levinau
pointed also at the incorrect information and mistakes in the documents of the
people who had been nominated to the commission.
In the course of the trial Pavel also entered repeated motions for challenge of
the judge and the prosecutor, S.Biadrevich, telling they had some personal
interest in this case. However, the motions weren’t granted.
Now the human rights defender is preparing an appeal to the procuracy.
Zhlobin
The Zhlobin District Court turned down claims of opposition representatives
against the results of the formation of PECs
by the Zhlobin District Executive Committee.
The oppositionists complained about the inclusion in the PECs of just 4 of their representatives. The
Chairperson of the Zhlobin district organization of the Belarusian Leftist
Party Fair World Valery Rybchanka
said that the candidacies hadn’t been discussed during the sitting of the
executive committee. The present representative of the executive committee
explained that ‘candidacies were discussed in different offices before the
sitting’.
Mr. Rybchanka also reminded the court that the Zhlobin District Executive
Committee (DEC) established 69 precinct election commissions in just about 11
minutes. The authorities included in the PECs
about 20% of nominees of the Fair World
and as much as 92% representatives of such pro-governmental structures as Belaya Rus or the Belarusian Republican
Youth Union. However, the Chairperson of the organizational and personnel
department of the Zhlobin DEC Siarhei Marukovich argued that the latter
organizations united many hundreds of people.
S.Marukovich also claimed that V.Rybchanka intentionally thwarted the work of
the executive committee by drawing its officers to trials and stated that the
executive committee was responsible for such great work as the organization of
the work of the precinct election commissions, the holding of their sittings
and the composition of their minutes (meanwhile, the Electoral Code doesn’t
give such powers to the authorities and considers such ‘organization’ as a
violation). The official also explained the refusal to include in a commission
the member of the Fair World Inesa
Tubalets by saying that she had created a conflict situation during the
previous election by voting against a decision of the commission and demanded
that her personal opinion was put down in the minutes of the sitting.
Judge Sviatlana Rubakhava also dismissed Rybchanka’s motion for summoning to
the trial the workers of the executive committee who had formed the election
commissions and studying the documents concerning their formation (though the
present prosecutors V.Nikitsina and S.Andreyeva stated there were no reasons to
decline these motions).
The court also dismissed the lawsuits of Piatro Ausiannikau and Yauhen
Basareuski who had bee nominated to PECs by collecting electors’ signatures,
but hadn’t been included in them. Judge Alena Yarmolchyk explained that the
lawsuits must be filed not by the nominees, but by the electors who had
nominated them. Ausiannikau and Basareuski disagree with such provision of the
Electoral Code, as the legal term for appealing is just three days and it is
hard to collect the signatures of all electors for such a short time.
Judge Lidziya Papeka refused to consider the lawsuit of the Homel regional
organization of the United Civil Party against the non-inclusion of its
representatives in the Zhlobin PEC, because the lawsuit was signed not by the
Chairperson of the Homel organization, but by his deputy in Zhlobin.
Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections
