STATEMENT BY ACCEEO MISSION ON BELARUS' ELECTION

2001-09-19

The Mission focused on the observation of the major stages of the election, such as the candidate nomination, signature collection in candidates' support, the election campaign in the mass media, voting and the vote count.

In addition to the permanent Mission, three expanded ACEEEO missions visited Belarus during the observation period. The delegations included representatives of the ACEEEO secretariat, Russia's Central Election Commission, and Ukraine's Central Election Commission. The Mission drafted interim reports and press releases on the election campaign.

On the final stage of the observation the Mission included short-term observers. The delegation included a total of 64 observers from 10 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the United States.

The Mission cooperated with other international organizations that deployed observers in the Republic of Belarus (OSCE ODIHR [Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights], European Parliament, the Council of Europe, and the CIS).

On the basis of materials available, the Mission accepts the preliminary voting results announced by Belarus' Central Commission for Elections and Referenda, noting some flaws, however.

The Mission notes that the authorities failed to create democratic conditions in a number of instances when organizing the voting process and that there was a shortage of pluralism and transparency during the election.

Legislative framework of the election.

Belarus' Electoral Code in general meets international electoral standards, which opened the way for many presidential hopefuls to the political scene. All in all, 22 presidential bidders were nominated, which reflects a pluralistic nature of the election campaign up to the polling day. Three presidential candidates gained access to the voting ballot.

The Electoral Code provides for the presence of observers as independent participants of the election process, which proves its commitment to ensuring the transparency of election procedures.

The Mission points out that the principle of representation was not applied in full measure when the election commissions were formed. This is explained, in addition to other factors (such as lack of information), by the weakness of political parties and non-governmental organizations. The Mission states the lack of unfounded restrictions on eligibility during the candidate registration.

The election commissions observed the norms of the national electoral law. Given that the incumbent was running for re-election, the practice of governing the election process by presidential decrees introduced quite significant innovations in the electoral process regulated by the Electoral Code. This created the impression that [the authorities] sought to ensure additional political and legal guarantees.

The Mission is dissatisfied with how the media participated in the election campaign, namely, the way the state-controlled media covered the activity of the incumbent who was seeking re-election.

To monitor the voting process and vote count, the Mission deployed 27 observer groups at the polling stations at all the six regions and the capital city of Minsk. During the polling day, the groups visited 240 polling stations and monitored different stages of the voting process, from opening the polling stations to the vote count and submitting the results to the higher-level election commissions. The Mission representatives met with different participants of the election process, including domestic observers.

The Mission noted violations of the election process only in a number of instances. For example, a violation of the ballot-box sealing procedure. On one occasion, there was no polling-booth to ensure the secrecy of the ballot during early voting. In a number of instances, two persons were present in one polling-booth. Some international observers were denied information about the election process. These violations, to all appearances, did not have decisive influence on the election results.

The Mission notes that Belarus' election revealed the necessity to develop and specify international electoral standards, as well as the necessity to seriously amend Belarus' electoral law and the practice of its implementation. The amendments should be aimed at ensuring fully equal conditions for candidates, the independence of electoral agencies and the public control over the process of voting and vote count.

The Mission points out poor technical facilities of election commissions, which hampers their work. The Mission expresses its gratitude to Belarus' election commissions, state-run, public and non-governmental organizations of Belarus, and international organizations for their assistance in the observation process.

The final report of the ACEEEO will be submitted for consideration at the Association's October 2001 conference in Croatia.

September 10, 2001
Minsk