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There is clear evidence of discrimination against opposition nominees for precinct election commissions, rights defender says

There is clear evidence of discrimination against opposition parties` nominees for membership in precinct election commissions, Valyantsin Stefanovich said at a news conference held Friday by the leaders of an election monitoring group called "Rights Defenders for Free Election."

Only 183 of the 1,073 nominees of opposition political parties, or 17.1 percent, were included in precinct commissions to account for 0.25 percent of their total membership, Mr. Stefanovich said. The parties will be represented on no more than three percent of all precinct commissions, he added.

As many as 93.2 percent of the nominees of the five major pro-government NGOs and 87.7 percent of the nominees of pro-government parties were included in precinct commissions, Mr. Stefanovich said.

Thus denials of membership in precinct commissions for representatives of opposition parties were five times more common than for representatives of pro-government organizations, he said.

This stage of the election campaign became a sobering counterpoint to “the liberal signature-collection stage," said Aleh Hulak, chairman of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee.

Lidziya Yarmoshyna, head of the central election commission, said on Friday that she saw nothing wrong with how the precinct commissions had been formed.

She noted that quite a lot of suits had already been filed with courts over denials of membership. "Courts will now decide whether precinct commissions were formed properly," she said. "The judicial test is the best one.” //BelaPAN