Belarus parliament elections

MINSK, 18 May (BelTA) - Recommendations on elections are not given to Belarus only, PACE rapporteur on Belarus Andrea Rigoni told media on 18 May, BelTA has learned.

“They (recommendations on elections – BelTA’s note) do not pertain to the Republic of Belarus alone. They are given to the majority of the Council of Europe member states,” Andrea Rigoni said. Among them are member states of the EU’s Eastern Partnership initiative, Balkan states and others.

“We do not teach lessons. We give concrete recommendations, advice. We discuss them with local authorities. The goal is to harmonize all the electoral procedures in Europe so that they should meet certain standards,” the PACE rapporteur added.

Andrea Rigoni emphasized that there is a need to discuss with the Belarusian side such aspects of electoral procedures as vote count and publishing the results of elections. He believes that these are very important things that have an influence on the level of public trust in their electoral mechanism.