Preliminary Monitoring Report on the First Day of Early Voting

600 short-term and 80 long-term observers of the “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections” campaign are conducting daily observation of early voting at 300 polling station throughout the country – in Minsk, regional and district centres, and other urban and rural settlements. Reports from the polling stations are processed on a daily basis and comprise a representative sample (observation covers 4.7% of 6,346 polling stations on the territory of the country), allowing for the assessment of general trends of early voting in Belarus. The statistics below refer to 230 polling stations, reports from which have been processed by 10:00 am on 15 December.

The aim of the campaign "Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections" is observation of the election of the President of Belarus in 2010, assessment of the electoral process from the viewpoint of Belarusian electoral legislation and international standards of free and democratic elections, and keeping the Belarusian public and international community duly informed about conclusions of the observation. The campaign is independent and politically non-engaged. More information about the campaign can be found in the websites of the Human Rights Centre "Viasna" (http://spring96.org) and Belarusian Helsinki Committee (http://www.belhelcom.org).