In total, the campaign Right to Choose has nominated 25 individuals who tried to become members of local commissions. Only three of them made it, others were denied without explanation. There were 153 commissions formed with almost two thousand members.
“In most cases, when the commissions were formed, the refusals to include representatives of the democratic forces were in no way motivated. The meetings of the bodies forming the commission passed without discussions of the nominations, but after approval of the lists prepared in advance,” the Right to Choose campaign reports.
Representatives of the BPF party Kastus Smolikau and Zmitser Kaspiarovich joined the Vitsebsk oblast and Minsk City Commission respectively, a representative of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada) Nadzeya Shomchanka joined the Zavodski rayon election commission in Minsk.
“Only on rare occasions were representatives of opposition parties included in the commissions, and the applications from the parties and public associations loyal to authorities were mostly approved, said the coordinators of the campaign. Local commissions in most cases will work without the participation of opposition representatives, and representatives of political parties and public associations that support the current government obtained an absolute majority in the commissions.”
The election campaign Right to Choose – 2015 consists of eight organizations: Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada), the organizing committee of the party Belarusian Christian Democracy, the Tell the Truth campaign, movement For Freedom, Party of the Belarusian Popular Front, Belarusian Green Party, an independent trade union of radio-electronic industry, the organizing committee of the Party of Freedom and Progress. The main goal of the campaign is to protect the true will of the citizens by preventing violations of the law at all stages of the election campaign, recording violations and promptly responding to them.
BelaPAN, belsat.eu/en/
