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OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights ready for dialogue with Belarus on election issues, director says

 

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is ready to work together with the Belarusian authorities to address some issues related to elections in the country, Director Janez Lenarcic said in an interview with BelaPAN in Minsk September 23.

Mr. Lenarcic stressed that the Belarusian authorities needed to address a number of issues. According to him, some politicians boycotted the ongoing the elections, some withdrew from the parliamentary race, some were denied access to the ballot, while some were unable to run because of their politically motivated criminal conviction. "All these factors have contributed to the narrowing of the choice for the voters," he stressed.

According to the ODIHR head, the Belarusian authorities have introduced some positive changes to electoral laws since the previous elections for the House of Representatives in 2008. He welcomed the fact that more party candidates are running in the ongoing elections than in the 2008 vote.

At the same time, Mr. Lenarcic said, "what our long-term monitors observed in the previous weeks is similar to [what was observed in] 2008."

"We believe that there must be a close look at the situation concerning electoral legislation, the registration of candidates, the possibilities for campaigning, the integrity of early voting," he said.

Mr. Lenarcic expressed hope that the election authorities would secure a transparent vote counting process and enable election monitors to observe it.

When asked to comment on Minsk's decision to deny visas to Germany's Marieluise Beck and Lithuania's Emanuelis Zingeris, who had planned to travel to Belarus in the capacity of election observers of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Mr. Lenarcic said that the ODIHR regretted the Belarusian authorities' decision. "We consider this to be unnecessary and inappropriate," he said. "We regret it, we think that observers should be welcome without exception." // BelaPAN