Presidential election 2015 in Belarus

MINSK, 27 August (BelTA) – 624 observers have been accredited with the territorial election commissions, Chairperson of the Central Election Commission Lidia Yermoshina told reporters, BelTA has learned.

Most observers, namely 494 persons, were sent by public associations. The Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus (FTUB) sent 113 people, the BRSM Youth Union and the Association Belaya Rus share the second place in terms of the number of observers.

72 people have been sent by Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus. The Communist Party of Belarus nominated the biggest number of representatives (46).

As for international observers, Lidia Yermoshina noted that currently two missions – the CIS and the OSCE/ODIHR – are monitoring the election campaign in the country.

In the CIS mission 23 observers represent Belarus, 15 Russia, 1 - Kazakhstan, 1 - Kyrgyzstan, 1 - Tajikistan, 3 - Turkmenistan. "The Turkmenistan mission includes not only the Ambassador but also two members of the Central Election Commission, who, in principle, will serve in two capacities - as guests of the Central Election Committee and as members of the CIS mission", Lidia Yermoshina said.

She informed that the OSCE/ODIHR provided the applications for the following observers: Armenia - 1, the UK - 2, Germany - 3, the Netherlands - 2, Greece - 1, Denmark - 3, Ireland - 1, Italy - 1, Kyrgyzstan - 1, Lithuania - 1, Macedonia -1, Norway - 2, Poland - 5, Russia - 8, Serbia - 1, the USA - 4, Ukraine - 1, Finland - 2, France - 2, the Czech Republic - 2, Switzerland - 1 and Sweden - 3.

"Who will join these observers will be known later as we are waiting to receive the applications for short-term observation, i.e. in the run-up to the elections," the Chairwoman of the Central Election Commission said.

She also added that the CIS mission actually began working and requested the necessary materials from the CEC even before its official opening. "Legal experts from the OSCE mission came to the Central Commission today. We make copies of all the complaints and the responses to them. So, basically, they got down to work immediately,” Lidia Yermoshina said.

As was reported, the OSCE/ODIHR observation mission was officially deployed in Belarus on 26 August. The mission is headed by Jacques Faure. The observers will monitor the registration of candidates and voters, campaigning activities, the work of the election administration and relevant government bodies, the application of electoral legislation and, the settlement of election-related complaints. The mission will monitor the media coverage of the election campaign. On 12 October, the mission plans to hold a press conference to announce preliminary findings. The final report will be published two months after the polling day. It will contain, among other things, the OSCE recommendations.