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Leadership of central election commission to meet with members of OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission on August 21

The leadership of the central election commission will meet with representatives of the observation mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) for Belarus’ House of Representatives elections in Minsk on August 21, Mikalay Lazavik, secretary of the central election commission, told BelaPAN on Monday.

He could not say who in particular would represent the mission and whether they had already arrived in Belarus. “These issues are dealt with by the foreign ministry and we have not yet received any messages from it,” he said.

The OSCE/ODIHR observation mission’s technical group was scheduled to arrive in Minsk on August 21 to attend to office, communications and transport matters and the main group of long-term observers was expected to arrive a few days later.

The mission is to include 40 long-term observers and 270 short-term observers, and will be headed by former Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki. Donald Bisson of the United States will be deputy head of the mission.

“We hope that the ODIHR observers will at last provide an unbiased assessment of elections in Belarus, Mr. Lazavik said.