IPA CIS Observer Team Started Short-Term Monitoring of Elections in Republic of Belarus

On 15 March 2019, the IPA CIS Observer Team arrived in Minsk and started short-term monitoring of elections to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus scheduled for 17 November 2019.

During the day, the observers from among deputies and representatives of the parliaments of the Azerbaijan Republic, the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as staff members of the IPA CIS Council Secretariat held a number of meetings with the stakeholders in the electoral process in the capital.

Deputy Chairman of Minsk Oblast Executive Committee Ivan Markevich shared with observers his opinion on the final stage of the election campaign in the region and described the forms and methods of campaigning used by the candidates.

Chairman of the Minsk Oblast Election Commission Oksana Taranda, informed the observers on the activities of the territorial commission, in particular, on the procedures of nominating and registering candidates and dealing with appeals of the denial of registration in various instances. Oksana Taranda also noted that the current campaign featured more active work of national observers. Moreover, she pointed out an increased workload of the commissions of all levels due to responding to the requests of the election participants and the strict deadlines for their consideration.

During the meeting with the Observer Team, Leader of the Republican Party of Labor and Justice Vasil Zadnyaprany, commended the activities of the public authorities and electoral management bodies. However, at the same time he noted some cases of the use of administrative resources on the ground. At the end of the meeting Vasil Zadnyaprany informed the Observer Team on the monitoring of the early voting by the party and the intention to send more than 700 observers from the Republican Party of Labor and Justice to the polling stations on the election day.

During the meetings, Acting Director of the IIMDD IPA CIS Ekaterina Goloulina told about the composition of the IPA CIS Observer Team, the results of the long-term monitoring and the schedules of the short-term monitoring on 15-17 November 2019.