Independent Observation headquarters presumes that up to 25 percent of votes for Goncharik went to Lukashenko

2001-09-21 19:15:00

Minsk, 21 September. Up to 25 percent of the votes for one candidate were "siphoned off" into the pile for another, Vladimir Gudeyev, chairman of the Belarusian Club of Voters, said at a news conference held in Minsk on September 21. According to Mr. Gudeyev, this conclusion naturally suggests itself as a result of a preliminary analysis of data collected in the framework of the Nezavisimoye Nablyudeniye (Independent Observation) campaign during Belarus' September 4-9 presidential election. Mr. Gudeyev said that the Nezavisimoye Nablyudeniye headquarters had received observers' data about voting results at 70 percent of all precincts. He noted numerous instances of voting under compulsion during the five-day early voting period (from September 4 to 8). Observers reported 314 such instances. In addition, he said, there was massive evidence of violations of the rules for keeping ballot boxes and of illegal interference with them. As many as 435 such instances were reported, according to Mr. Gudeyev. Guided by data from 35 percent of all voting places, the Nezavisimoye Nablyudeniye headquarters maintains that 2,661,488 people, or 22.79 percent of all registered voters, cast their ballots during the early voting period. Mr. Gudeyev noted that this percentage was typical of early voting in towns and the proportion of those who voted before the polling day (September 9) was much larger in rural areas. For instance, 54 percent of the voters took part in early voting in the Dubrovno district, Vitebsk region, 51 percent in the Kletsk district, Minsk region, and 34.64 percent in the Buda-Koshelyovo district, Gomel region. "I think the proportion of those who voted before the polling day may have reached 30 percent nationally," Mr. Gudeyev said. He also noted that the proportions of the officially announced numbers of the ballots for incumbent Aleksandr Lukashenko and for his main rival, an opposition coalition's candidate Vladimir Goncharik, during the early voting period were radically different from the results of the polling day. For instance, out of the 422 people who took part in early voting at Precinct No. 1 in Minsk's Pervomaisky district, 98.1 percent allegedly voted for Mr. Lukashenko and only 1,4 percent for Mr. Goncharik, whereas out of the 342 people who voted on September 9, 50.6 percent voted for the incumbent and 26.9 percent for the opposition candidate. "Taking observation data into consideration, one can presume that a part of the ballots put into boxes during early voting were then replaced," Mr. Gudeyev said. He also noted a considerable difference between the electoral authorities' and observers' data about the number of those who voted on September 9. For instance, at 28 percent of all precincts in the Gomel region, the difference was 18,000. The Belarusian Club of Voters chairman mentioned other things that could suggest election fraud. In particular, he noted an incredibly high proportion of those who, according to official data, voted at home. For instance, such voters accounted for 11.58 percent in the Minsk region. According to Mr. Gudeyev, there were precincts at which the numbers of those who voted before the polling day or at home totaled up to 80 percent. "If we extrapolate the available data from one third of the precincts to all of them, and take into consideration the presumed violations of electoral legislation in rural areas, it is quite within reason to suggest that about 25 percent of the votes for one candidate went to another," Mr. Gudeyev concluded.