Report on election campaigning
In general, local executive committees created favorable conditions for election campaigning and the number of places for holding public events increased in comparison with the elections of 2016. However, election campaigning was low key and administrative resources were widely used to promote the pro-government candidates, while non-affiliated and opposition candidates reported that their political campaigns […]
Interim Reports – Candidates’ registration revoked and banned from public broadcasts
There are continued cases in the run up to the Parliamentary elections of candidates’ registrations being revoked over alleged violations of Art. 47 and ongoing cases of bans on broadcasting the campaign speeches of opposition candidates; the DECs and the public media have demonstrated an extremely loose treatment of restrictions on campaigning activities, as established […]
Censorship and penalties: Parliamentary elections worse than ever
This year’s parliamentary elections have already been marred by multiple instances of arbitrary interpretation of electoral laws, Uladzimir Labkovich, coordinator of the campaign “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”, said in a comment on the case of candidate Uladzimir Zahryshau running in Babrujsk. The candidate was among a few other people across Belarus who were penalized by the […]
Interim Reports – Censorship and penalties against candidates
Opposition candidates have been censored during their campaigning and have had their registrations revoked for criticising authorities, reports the election observation campaign “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”. Many appeals of candidates whose registration was refused have yet to be considered despite the period for this having already passed and only one appeal was successful. […]
Domestic observers report lack of progress in nomination and registration of candidates
Parliamentary elections 2019: Report on the nomination and registration of candidates The nomination and registration of candidates were not marked by any significant differences as compared to the previous parliamentary elections, concludes an interim report by the nation-wide campaign “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”. The findings were presented today at a press conference in […]
Report on the nomination and registration of candidates
The nomination and registration of candidates were not marked by any significant differences as compared to the previous parliamentary elections, concludes an interim report by the nation-wide campaign “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”. The elections retained all of the negative things that were observed during previous campaigns: low representation of opposition in election commissions, […]
Discrimination against opposition in formation of DECs and PECs
Parliamentary elections 2019. Report on the formation of territorial and district election commissions Observation of the elections to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus is carried out by the Belarusian Helsinki Committee and the Human Rights Center “Viasna” in the framework of the campaign “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”. […]
Report on the formation of precinct election commissions
All the observers of the campaign “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections” were able to freely attend the meetings of bodies that formed the precinct election commissions (PECs), but the absence of legal guarantees for the representation of all political actors on the election commissions, as in the past, resulted in arbitrary and discriminatory treatment […]
Report on the formation of territorial and district election commissions
The majority of observers were able to freely attend meetings of bodies that formed the TECs and DECs; only five of them reported obstacles at the first meetings of the commissions; as in the past, absence of legislative guarantees of the proportional representation in the election commissions of all political actors involved in the elections […]
Belarus after the local elections: Is the revival of the Belarusian electoral system possible?
On 18 February 2018, the local elections in Belarus were over. Independent Belarusian media once again reported high turnout, while voters generally showed little interest. The independent civil society election observation initiative “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections” even speaks of the “worst and dirtiest elections ever” and points out new methods of electoral […]
