City prosecutor's office in Zhodino launches investigation into alleged election fraud

Zhodino, 26 April. The City Prosecutor's Office in Zhodino, Minsk region, has launched a preliminary investigation into an alleged fraud in the March local elections. In their complaints filed with the Minsk Regional Prosecutor's Office and the Prosecutor General's Office, Svetlana Lapitsky of the Vyasna human rights center and her husband, Aleksei Lapitsky of the Belarusian Popular Front, insisted that ballot-rigging had influenced the election outcome in one of the Zhodino electoral districts. As Mrs. Lapitsky told BelaPAN, the district election commission informed candidates Aleksei Lapitsky and Aleksandr Volchanin on the night of March 2 that the required voter turnout had not been reached, but the following morning announced the victory of their rival, Pavel Mariyev, director general of the Belarusian Automobile Factory (BelAZ). On April 25, City Prosecutor Vladimir Nebosko questioned Mr. Lapitsky. The Prosecutor's Office declined to comment.