The Republic of Belarus is busy with preparations for the upcoming parliamentary election

On 5 August 2016, Head of the CIS Observer Mission for the parliamentary election to the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus Sergey Lebedev familiarized himself with the work of two Election Commissions of Minsk. He had a talk with commission members and informed them about the principles of the Observer Mission.

Then Sergey Lebedev shared his opinion on the political campaign in Belarus. He believes that the political campaign is properly organized and is in compliance with the legislation of Belarus. Precinct election commissions are formed in compliance with the Central Commission Plan.

The CIS long-term observers attended sessions of local executive committees and local government authorities. The sessions focused on establishing precinct election commissions and took place all across the Republic of Belarus. The observers confirmed that the sessions had been open and had been attended by representatives of political parties, NGOs and observers. Before taking decisions, the participants discussed personal characteristics of nominees, and when the number of nominees exceeded the number of seats, personal voting was in place.

The next week, the CIS Observers will attend sessions of precinct election commissions and monitor the registration process of parliamentary candidates all across Belarus.

As of 5 August 2016, the CIS Observer Mission has 183 accredited observers. They represent the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Russian Federation, Turkmenistan, the Parliamentary Assembly of Belarus and Russia, the Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS Member Nations, and the CIS Executive Committee. 44 observers work on a long-term basis. The Observer Mission is not complete yet.