News on the topic: elections-2016
09.09.2016 Activists protest forced early voting
A group of human rights defenders and students' rights activists have launched an online petition to protest against the forcing of Belarusian students to vote early in this year’s parliamentary elections.
08.09.2016 Parliamentary elections: Analytical report on second day of early voting
In accordance with the Electoral Code, early voting opened on September 6.
07.09.2016 Reliability and control: ‘Labor collectives’ as election trend
Year after year, state-owned enterprises and institutions have helped provided human resources to form the election commissions, ‘cooperative’ observers and loyal candidates. The tradition rests upon the country’s legislation, which defines a company’s staff (‘labor collective’) as a key actor of the electoral process, a fact opposed by many independent experts as an anachronism of the Soviet past.
07.09.2016 Parliamentary elections: Analytical report on first day of early voting
In accordance with the Electoral Code, early voting opened on September 6.
05.09.2016 Weekly Analytical Report. August 29 - September 4
A significant level of campaigning activity is demonstrated by the pro-government candidates, who still use the administrative resource, including state-controlled electronic and print media.
01.09.2016 OSCE ODIHR issues interim report on election observation in Belarus
The OSCE ODIHR official website published yesterday an interim report by an observation mission deployed in Belarus to observe the parliamentray elections scheduled for September 11. The report covers the period from 2 to 26 August 2016.
31.08.2016 Counting of Votes Revisited
On September 11, the parliamentary elections will culminate in Election Day, which, in turn, will end with vote counting, a procedure of extreme secrecy, according to election officials. Meanwhile, it is the vote count that has traditionally triggered fierce criticism of both domestic and international observers, not to speak of opposition candidates running for Parliament. The observers’ recommendations are that the vote counting procedure needs more transparency.
23.08.2016 ENEMO observers still unwelcome in Belarus
The Belarusian Central Election Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have not yet replied to a request asking for the invitation of an ENEMO mission to observe the parliamentary elections scheduled for September 11, according to ENEMO Secretariat.
15.08.2016 Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections voice findings on first half of elections
Members of the campaign Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections have summed up the first half of the observation of this year’s parliamentary elections.
15.08.2016 Analytical Report on the Registration of Candidates
There were cases of abusing administrative resources in favor of pro-government candidates, as well as pressure on members of opposition candidates’ nomination groups.
12.08.2016 Invitation to press-conference on election progress
The Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections civil campaign announces a press conference to be held at 12:00, August 15 in the office of the HRC "Viasna" at the address: 8-26 vulitsa Miarzhynskaha.
11.08.2016 PACE mission issues statement on election campaign
A pre-electoral delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) visited Minsk to assess the election campaign and the preparations for the parliamentary elections to be held on 11 September 2016.
10.08.2016 Human rights activists take part in meeting with PACE delegation
On August 9, the delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, including the Special Rapporteur on Belarus Andrea Rigoni, met with representatives of the Belarusian civil society.
09.08.2016 OSCE ODIHR mission meets with Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections
On August 8, the office of the Human Rights Center "Viasna" hosted a meeting of the OSCE ODIHR election observation mission with representatives of the Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections domestic observation campaign.
08.08.2016 Weekly Analytical Report: August 1-7
As in earlier elections, observers of the campaign “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections” were, in most cases, denied the opportunity to observe the verification of signatures submitted in support of nominations.