Brest: former candidate challenged the refusal of the court to prosecute the actions of election commissions

Chairperson of the city organization of the Belarusian Leftist Party "Fair World" Liudmila Dzenisenka, who ran for the Brest City Council of Deputies at the electoral district №13 in March 2014, filed a complaint with the Brest Regional Court.

Thus, the activist of "Fair World" expressed disagreement with the decision of the Leninski District Court of Brest, who refused to institute civil proceedings on her complaint against the illegal actions of election commissions and the public authority. "The judge of the district court issued a ruling on refusal to institute a civil case on my complaint, referring to lack of jurisdiction”, commented Liudmila Dzenisenka. “I think these conclusions are illegal, and remind about articles of the Civil Procedure Code and the Constitution of Belarus in my complaint to the regional court, and ask the judge to reverse the verdict of the Leninsky District Court of Brest."

Bear in mind that at the Leninski District Court the activist tried to get a list of voters at polling station No. 44 who voted at home on the Election Day. As it follows from the transcript of the polling station commission, on March 23 168 people voted at home. Liudmila Dzenisenka believes that it is impossible for members of the election commission to visit that many houses (there are many private houses on the territory of the electoral constituency) during one day. Therefore the former candidate wants to check whether these people really voted in the place of their residence.

Liudmila Dzenisenka filed a lawsuit with the Leninski District Court after unsuccessful appeals to the Brest regional and Brest city election commission, which he asked to provide her with the list of voters who voted at home, and also to the Brest Prosecutor's Office, which he asked to conduct an audit on the aforementioned fact and oblige the relevant authorities to submit the list of voters. When the prosecutor's office answered that the list of voters was at the Leninski District Executive Committee, the ex-candidate applied there, but to no avail. In her complaint to the Leninski District Court of Brest the former candidate demanded that the refusals of the election commissions be found unlawful and violating Part 4 of Article 49-1 of the Election Code, according to which the applicant has the right to review materials related to the consideration of his/her application. She also demanded that the Leninski District Executive Committee of Brest be obliged to submit the list of voters who voted at home at the polling station No. 44, in order to view it and make copies.

"Let's see what answer I will get from the regional court. At the moment I think that they just protract the time in order to conceal the possible falsification of the election results at this polling station, as the lists of voters are destroyed six months after the election," said Liudmila Dzenisenka.