Supreme Court throws out candidates' appeals against election results

2006-04-05 22:30

Minsk, 5 April. The Supreme Court of Belarus has rejected two defeated candidates' requests to invalidate the results of last month's presidential election.
Anastasiya Tsimanovich, spokeswoman for the Supreme Court, said that the appeals by Aleksandr Kozulin and Aleksandr Milinkevich were outside the court's jurisdiction.
She said that candidates could appeal only the central election commission's decisions invalidating election results. Other decisions by the central election commission are not subject to consideration, she added.
Sergei Kalyakin, campaign manager for Mr. Milinkevich dismissed the decision as "one-sided interpretation of the Electoral Code."
"All we can say is that a judiciary based on the separation of powers is dead in Belarus," he stressed.
The central election commission on March 20 declared incumbent Aleksandr Lukashenko the overwhelming winner with a tally of 83 percent, saying that the runner-up, Mr. Milinkevich, received just 6.1 percent of the vote. Mr. Lukashenko's two rivals demanded a rerun saying the election was deeply flawed.