Belarus parliament elections

SCO observation mission pledges representative sample at parliamentary elections in Belarus

MINSK, 14 November (BelTA) – The SCO mission will secure the widest possible representative sample as it observes the elections to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, Deputy Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the head of the mission Xie Xiaoyong told the media after a ceremony to lay flowers to the Minsk Hero City monument, BelTA has learned.

“We arrived in the country at the invitation of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to observe the upcoming parliamentary elections,” Xie Xiaoyong said. “From 13 to 18 November we are conducting a wide-ranging observation mission in such major cities as Minsk, Brest and Mogilev, and also in towns and settlements of these regions. Our goal is to secure the widest possible representative sample of the election process,” he said.

He noted that the delegation met with the head of the Central Election Commission, got familiar with the preparations for the elections. “Yesterday and today we observed some elements of this preparation process. We have no remarks, everything is going well," the head of the mission explained.

The CEC has already accredited more than 1,000 international observers, including 17 from the SCO to monitor the elections to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the seventh convocation. According to Xie Xiaoyong, they are representatives of the legislative, executive and electoral systems of the member states.

After the flower ceremony, the guests visited the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War. Xie Xiaoyong noted that the Chinese people also suffered considerable losses fighting against the Japanese militarists on the eastern front. “It is important to remember the lessons of the past in order to maintain peace on our planet," he said.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is an international organization established in 2001. Its member states are India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan. Four other countries have the observer status at the SCO, including Belarus, which received this status in 2015.

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