CIS Observer Mission Summed Up Monitoring of Referendum in Republic of Belarus

28 February 2022

CIS Observer Mission Summed Up Monitoring of Referendum in Republic of Belarus

On 28 February 2022, the final press conference of the CIS Observer Mission at the referendum on amendments and additions to the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus took place.

During the press conference, Head of the CIS Observer Mission, Deputy Chair of the Executive Committee – CIS Executive Secretary Ilkhom Nematov noted that the Observer Mission members visited 926 polling stations on voting day and covered all regions of the country. The Head of the CIS Observer Mission also noted the highly professional work of the election administration bodies, thanked the Central Commission of the Republic of Belarus on Elections and Holding Republican Referenda and personally Chair of the Commission Igor Karpenko for support during the monitoring.

IPA CIS Observer Team Coordinator, Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Konstantin Kosachev recalled that 195 observers were accredited to the referendum, 145 of them were the representatives of various structures associated with the CIS, including 37 observers from the IPA CIS. Konstantin Kosachev described the situation at the polling stations as calm, conflict-free, close to festive, and the voting process as in line with democratic norms. Despite the fact that in some cases observers recorded certain technical flaws, the Observer Team Coordinator was sure that none of these technical errors could affect the outcome of the voting.

According to the Observer Team members, the republican referendum on amendments and additions to the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, was held in compliance with the rights and freedoms of the referendum participants, was in line with the national legislation and international obligations of the Republic of Belarus in the electoral field.