CEC Information Center

The CEC Information Center operated in the Palace of the Republic in Minsk from January 24 to 27. On the main election day on 26 January, it hosted press conferences and briefings by the leadership of the Central Election Commission and live broadcasts from the regions of Belarus throughout the day.

The CEC Information Center is an important form of implementation of the constitutional principles of openness and transparency during the elections, Chairman of the Belarusian Central Election Commission (CEC) Igor Karpenko said during the opening ceremony on 24 January. The CEC head emphasized that when planning the election campaign, the Central Election Commission was guided by the current legislation and built interaction with all subjects of the electoral process:

“The Information Center is an important form of implementation of the constitutional principles of openness and publicity during the election period. This traditional platform of the CEC is the source of prompt up-to-date and reliable information about the presidential election campaign taking place in the country for mass media, national and international observers”.

This year, for the first time, the center was open for four days. It hosted a youth tournament on the Vybor.BY game organized by the Youth Council under the CEC, an exhibition about the development of electoral law. Scholars in the field of electoral law, experts, practitioners, and election organizers worked at the media platforms of the center.

And, of course, during the key days of the election campaign journalists worked at the CEC Information Center almost round the clock. A total of 481 journalists from 25 Belarusian media outlets and 331 journalists from 70 foreign media companies had access to the CEC Information Center in the Palace of the Republic. The largest media organizations from 23 countries of Asia, Europe, Latin and North America and the Middle East sent their journalists to Belarus to cover the election. Traditionally, high interest was shown by Russian media. Applications for accreditation were submitted by international media organizations like BBC, Reuters (UK), Al Jazeera (Qatar), China Central Television and China Global Television Network, TASS, VGTRK (Russia), CNN, Associated Press (USA), AFP (France) and major regional media outlets like TeleSUR (Venezuela), ZDF, ARD (Germany), EFE (Spain), and France Télévisions (France).

It is noteworthy that not only national but also regional mass media of Belarus were accredited at the CEC Information Center for the first time. In addition, a number of bloggers sent applications to get access to the Information Center and their applications were approved.