Viktar Karneyenka: government failed another test of fair elections

Only 37 out of 110 candidates from the United democratic forces (UDF) list, prepared by Movement For Freedom, were included in district electoral commissions (DEC) for the general election in September. This accounts just more than 2% of all members of district commissions in the country.

Vice-chairman of the Movement For Freedom, coordinator of “For free election” campaign within the framework of the United democratic forces (UDF),  Victar Karneyenka has commented to the press service of the Movement For Freedom the issue of composition of district electoral commissions which fell in the shadow of regional administrations and Central electoral commission (CEC).

- How many people from the UDF were accepted to district electoral commissions? Is it enough or not?

- Only 37 persons from the UDF list were included in 110 district electoral commissions although we presented 110 candidates. So, it is slightly over 2% of all members in DECs though we assumed to have 10% of people in DECs while planning our participation in this election. Certainly, they should be more but this time we requested it in minimum. I believe that it would not be enough if we had even 109 seats in DECs. We should have one representative from opposition in every DEC at least. Therefore, having only 37 DEC members is not enough at all for we will be able to cover less than third part of all DECs across the country.

- Vice-chairman of CEC Mikalai Lazavik argues that political parties have got rather “substantial” representation in DECs. But there are also many political entities that did not lift a finger to propose their candidates for commissions.

- Created by the UDF a common list of 110 candidates is just an obvious response for this quite demagogy. Mr. Lazavik should have better focused on his professional duties. Because one can recall how Lukashenka demanded to include opposition in the electoral commissions. And today if we look carefully at the final lists of DEC members it may bring us to one of two conclusions whether the head of state has already lost control over the situation or he is telling lies.

- Who was included in DECs?

- In order to give you a clear picture about their policy I would rather mention people whom they rejected to be a member of DEC. So, they are a former mayor of Homel Sviatlana Haldade, a local deputy in Verkhniadzvinsk Valiantsina Kudlatskaya, a former mayor of Baran Yury Nahorny. Moreover, the district administrations of Minsk denied to have in electoral commissions such candidates as a former head of state Stanislau Shushkevich, a former minister of defense Paval Kazlouski, a former minister of labor Aliaksandr Sasnou and dozens other public figures in Belarus.

We have been using all legal opportunities in order to have our representatives in electoral commissions. Our candidates are supported not only by political parties and NGO’s but by voters who have been signing for them. It is most likely that current administrations, while taking decision about composition of electoral commissions, first of all, pay attention to individual characters where loyalty to the government is a top priority. This can explain why the strongest candidatures have no chance to become a member of electoral commission.

- Can you say that there is a well-thought-out plan behind?

- Well, I have no doubt that the government is pursuing its own policy by selecting for electoral commissions either civil servants or people who could be dependent on authorities. Referring to the case of our candidature for the next Parliament Aliaksandr Mekh, everyone, and whoever it is, accepted or not accepted in electoral commissions, should expect to have problems at work if he/she will stand for democratic principles during the elections. And this is a particular concern for the opposition candidates as well. I just want to remind you that the working contract of Aliaksandr Mekh, who worked for a state own company Beltransgaz, was not extended just due to the order from administration.  This is a clear example how authorities, using so called soft pressing tool to persecute decent and self-respect people.

- How much is DEC influential on electoral campaign?

- One should not underestimate the role of district electoral commission. You can do a lot if you have a DEC’s mandate. Because this is in a competence of DEC to register candidates, to give warnings to participants of election or to cancel candidate’s registration before election day. DEC members are also entitled to observe the voting process as well as counting of votes in a polling station on E-day. So, it is a good possibility to prevent flagrant falsifications at least in one polling station.

- What do you think about existing system of recruitment for electoral commissions, its selection process?

- Within civic campaign “For free election” we had worked out, six months ago, a set of regulations for this election. Than, we conveyed our proposals to Central electoral commission (CEC) in order to discuss and then to approve these regulations to improve the existing practice of elections in Belarus at least. However, CEC did not admit our proposals even as a draft although one of our principal suggestions was to provide access to electoral commissions, including DECs, for all participants in election.
So, now I can say that Movement For Freedom is going to hold a meeting about this situation with its partners from UDF. It may be a case that we will recommend to opposition candidates that they should not participate in election, especially in those districts where we have no a single representative in electoral commission. It is clear for me that the government and CEC have no intention to have democratic elections in these districts. The withdrawal of all democratic candidates from these elections could also be an option.
We will act in response for such a behavior of the government. We presume that the legitimacy of the forthcoming elections is coming to be in a big question. We will inform both Belarusian voters and international community about the government’s challenge to civil society.

- And what next?

- I think that we should continue our campaign “For free election” anyway. The next stage of our campaign is to get opposition representatives in the polling station commissions (PSC) which are essentially important in the whole election system. We are going to present our candidates for PSCs, especially in those where we have either a strong opposition candidate or a DEC member.

As officials continue to argue that they want these elections to be conducted in accordance with democratic principles we will test them once more while proposing our representatives to be included in PSCs. In fact, so far not good at all for the government.

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