Lower chamber's credentials committee refuses to annul vote results in Minsk's district

2004-11-16 12:50:00

Minsk, 16 November. The committee on credentials in the House of Representatives on Tuesday rejected Lyudmila Gryaznova's complaint seeking to invalidate the vote in the number 110 district in Minsk. The deputy chairwoman of the United Civic Party (UCP), who was on the parliamentary ballot in the district in October's elections, wanted the committee to nullify the results of the poll over what she called "massive flagrant abuses of the electoral regulations." Attached to the complaint were reports by independent observers who accused election officials in the district of refusing to produce voter rolls, barring monitors from observing the vote count process, as well as attempting to bribe voters by tapping free beer and handing out free biscuits at polling stations. In addition, the complaint contained a list of alleged violations committed by the camp of MP Anatoly Krasutsky who was officially declared the winner. According to the UCP deputy chairwoman, the government-backed candidate was offered unrestricted access to any premises occupied by the district-based enterprises and organizations for holding meetings with constituents. In addition, Mr. Krasutsky used his personal money to print and distribute election leaflets, Ms. Gryaznova said. Apart from this, the sitting MP's camp dropped 20,000 copies of a government-controlled newspaper, each having a leaflet inserted, into voters' mailboxes. Speaking at Tuesday's meeting of the House, Aleksandr Svirid, chairman of the credentials committee, noted that the committee had taken a close look at the complaint but discovered "no facts of irregularities that could influence the results of the elections" in the district.