Leanid Haravy: Voters equality principle is violated in Belarus

The Movement for Freedom (the MFF) activist sent the appeal to the Central Election Commission because of the fact that Vitsiebsk province constituencies differ greatly in the number of voters.

According to the MFF activist Leanid Haravy, the Haradok election commission on the election of the Haradok District Council deputies created 31 constituency when forming the constituencies’ quantitative composition – with 18 constituencies having the quantitative composition of voters less than or over 10% of the average quantity of voters per constituency. As the result, 841 voters of the Noviya Vaykhany Village Council (Prudniki and Noviya Vaykhany constituencies) elect two deputies of the Haradok District Council, while 842 voters of the Kabishche constituency elect only one deputy.

The appeal to the Haradok Prosecutor’s Office yielded no results. The Vitsiebsk Province Election Commission wrote a runaround. Haravy thinks both the Haradok District Election Commission and the Vitsiebsk Province Election Commission don’t know the provisions of the Election Code, and operate with rude violations of the Election Code standards.

The MFF activist also notes in his appeal that more than ten district election commissions of the Vitsiebsk province created constituencies for the District Councils with violations of the standard of Article 15, part 6. Only the Bieshankovichy district has no constituencies with deviations of over 10% from the average number of voters per constituency. Such deviations exist in 75% of constituencies in Vierkhniadzvinsk district, with 50% of constituencies having deviations in Sienna, Dokshytsy, Rasony, Sharkaushchyna, and in Vorsha districts, and with over 30% of “cut up” constituencies violating the 10% deviation standard in Braslau, Shumilina, Liozna, Talachyn, and Miyory districts. As of today, only the Vorsha District Election Commission corrected the violations of the Election Code concerning cutting up the constituencies. The remaining district commissions continue the election campaign with violations of the Election Code of the Republic of Belarus.

Article 15, part 3 of the Election Code prescribes that “Constituencies shall be created with approximately even quantity of voters. For the election of deputies of the corresponding local Deputies Council, the deviation of the quantity of voters in any constituency... shall not, as a rule, exceed 10% of the average quantity of voters included in constituencies of the corresponding local Deputies Council”.

Haravy thinks that in this situation, the Central Commission of the Republic of Belarus on Elections and Republican Referendums should use its authority under Article 33, parts 1, 2, and 17 of the Election Code of the Republic of Belarus, restoring uniformity of actions of the Vitsiebsk province election commissions concerning elections to district councils.

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