A spokesman for the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, Anatoli Hlaz, said that polling stations abroad would not open during the so-called referendum on amendments to the Constitution, BelTA reports.
Hlaz notes that according to the Electoral Code, polling stations for voting outside Belarus are formed by the heads of foreign missions. When deciding on opening a polling station, several factors are considered: the number of citizens on consular records and the epidemic situation among them.
Today, as Hlaz notes, more than a third of all foreign missions “have not opened polling stations due to the small number of citizens registered with the consulate. In Lithuania and Latvia, according to a representative of the Foreign Ministry, there are not enough personnel to ensure the station’s work. Some embassies and consulates allegedly decided “not to risk the health of employees and voters due to a drastic change in the epidemic situation in the host countries.”
In addition, Hlaz said, some embassies and consulates will not organize voting due to “uncertainty about their security.”
