Lidzia Yarmoshyna: There have never been elections without violations
The Chairperson of the Central Elections Commission promised it would be allowed to collect signatures for candidates in a big quantity of places, that CEC would close their eyes to documentation on incomes, and observers would be allowed to watch the process of counting of votes. Electoral campaign approaches another phase - collecting of signatures. Now it will be allowed to do it almost everywhere. This was stated by the Central Elections Commission Chairperson Lidzia Yarmoshyna.
Lidzia Yarmoshyna: “Our electoral legislation has been amended this year so collecting signatures via pickets, the form which was very popular during presidential elections, is now legitimate. It is allowed to conduct pickets in a big quantity of places: pedestrian subways, markets, railway and bus stations, shopping centers - all these are potential places for organizing pickets aimed at collecting signatures. In fact, there are limitations only with regard to 3 main squares in Minsk. It is also stated that pickets are prohibited in close proximity (less than 200 meters) to the President's residency. However, pickets are allowed at the distance more than 200 meters there”.
Nomination of candidates to 155 territorial elections commissions finished on Sunday, September 26. Their formation is to be completed by September 29. According to Yarmoshyna, 2681 applications have been filed to 2015 vacations of members of commissions. Only 70 of them are representatives of the opposition parties.
Lidzia Yarmoshyna: "The Belarusian left party "Fair World" have nominated more than 50% of representatives to the territorial elections commissions, or 36 people, the United Civic Party - 24 people, the BPF Party - 7 people, and the Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada - 3 people. Other political parties of this spectrum have not appointed their representatives to the territorial elections commissions”.
The CEC Chairperson is convinced that the opposition "save" their people now in order to nominate much more to the presinct elections commissions later.
As for the future candidates, Yarmoshyna told about the relief they would face when filing documents to the Central Elections Commission. They are no longer obliged to file declarations on incomes of close relatives. The only exclusion is wives and children over 18, if they live together. And even if a contender makes a mistake in the sum of his incomes, it will not become the reason for refusal in his registration as a candidate.
Lidzia Yarmoshyna: “In case it will be a mistake for no more than 20% of the annual income of a contender, it would not be considered a mistake and the candidate will be registered.”.
However, the liberal approach to candidates' registration will be limited to the above, informed Lidzia Yarmoshyna to the European Radio for Belarus.
Lidzia Yarmoshyna: “There are norms we are supposed to follow. A constitutional norm - a presidential contender can be a person who is supported by no less than 100 thousand voters. Thus, if a candidate lacks just 10 or 20 votes to 100 thousand , there's nothing we can do - he will not be registered”.
As if predicting the future accusations, Lidzia Yarmoshyna claimed there had never been elections without violations in our country. So, we are to expect them this time as well. Another thing is how many and what kind of violations there will be.
Lidzia Yarmoshyna: “Elections never go without violations. It is impossible to avoid them. However, there can be different kinds of violations - some of them influence the results of the elections, some don't. Among the violations which influence the results are fabrications, like, for example, ballots being thrown in at an electoral district, or numbers being fabricated. However, if things like that happen at one electoral district it doesn't mean they happen all over the country”.
Her words about violations turned the journalists' attention to the issue of legitimacy of filing documents for registration of nomination group by an intermediary. Yarmoshyna defended the current leader of the country whose registration documents had been filed by the Minister of Education Aliaksandr Radzkou.
Lidzia Yarmoshyna: “The Law says nothing about how the documents should be submitted. It just says that a person who intends to run as a candidate for President should file an application with the list of members of his nomination group to the Central Elections Commission. There's not a single word whether he should to it in person, in the Law”.
Thus, she said there had been no violation in this regard. As for observers, the OSCE long-term observers will arrive here in the nearest days, according to Yarmoshyna, and the short-term invitations will be sent a month before the elections. The CEC members are to start training of territorial elections commissions members how to conduct elections. In addition to everything else, informs Yarmoshyna, they will be taught that observers should be admitted to the places where the votes are counted.
Photo: Zmitser Lukashuk
Lidzia Yarmoshyna: “Our electoral legislation has been amended this year so collecting signatures via pickets, the form which was very popular during presidential elections, is now legitimate. It is allowed to conduct pickets in a big quantity of places: pedestrian subways, markets, railway and bus stations, shopping centers - all these are potential places for organizing pickets aimed at collecting signatures. In fact, there are limitations only with regard to 3 main squares in Minsk. It is also stated that pickets are prohibited in close proximity (less than 200 meters) to the President's residency. However, pickets are allowed at the distance more than 200 meters there”.
Nomination of candidates to 155 territorial elections commissions finished on Sunday, September 26. Their formation is to be completed by September 29. According to Yarmoshyna, 2681 applications have been filed to 2015 vacations of members of commissions. Only 70 of them are representatives of the opposition parties.
Lidzia Yarmoshyna: "The Belarusian left party "Fair World" have nominated more than 50% of representatives to the territorial elections commissions, or 36 people, the United Civic Party - 24 people, the BPF Party - 7 people, and the Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada - 3 people. Other political parties of this spectrum have not appointed their representatives to the territorial elections commissions”.
The CEC Chairperson is convinced that the opposition "save" their people now in order to nominate much more to the presinct elections commissions later.
As for the future candidates, Yarmoshyna told about the relief they would face when filing documents to the Central Elections Commission. They are no longer obliged to file declarations on incomes of close relatives. The only exclusion is wives and children over 18, if they live together. And even if a contender makes a mistake in the sum of his incomes, it will not become the reason for refusal in his registration as a candidate.
Lidzia Yarmoshyna: “In case it will be a mistake for no more than 20% of the annual income of a contender, it would not be considered a mistake and the candidate will be registered.”.
However, the liberal approach to candidates' registration will be limited to the above, informed Lidzia Yarmoshyna to the European Radio for Belarus.
Lidzia Yarmoshyna: “There are norms we are supposed to follow. A constitutional norm - a presidential contender can be a person who is supported by no less than 100 thousand voters. Thus, if a candidate lacks just 10 or 20 votes to 100 thousand , there's nothing we can do - he will not be registered”.
As if predicting the future accusations, Lidzia Yarmoshyna claimed there had never been elections without violations in our country. So, we are to expect them this time as well. Another thing is how many and what kind of violations there will be.
Lidzia Yarmoshyna: “Elections never go without violations. It is impossible to avoid them. However, there can be different kinds of violations - some of them influence the results of the elections, some don't. Among the violations which influence the results are fabrications, like, for example, ballots being thrown in at an electoral district, or numbers being fabricated. However, if things like that happen at one electoral district it doesn't mean they happen all over the country”.
Her words about violations turned the journalists' attention to the issue of legitimacy of filing documents for registration of nomination group by an intermediary. Yarmoshyna defended the current leader of the country whose registration documents had been filed by the Minister of Education Aliaksandr Radzkou.
Lidzia Yarmoshyna: “The Law says nothing about how the documents should be submitted. It just says that a person who intends to run as a candidate for President should file an application with the list of members of his nomination group to the Central Elections Commission. There's not a single word whether he should to it in person, in the Law”.
Thus, she said there had been no violation in this regard. As for observers, the OSCE long-term observers will arrive here in the nearest days, according to Yarmoshyna, and the short-term invitations will be sent a month before the elections. The CEC members are to start training of territorial elections commissions members how to conduct elections. In addition to everything else, informs Yarmoshyna, they will be taught that observers should be admitted to the places where the votes are counted.
Photo: Zmitser Lukashuk
