Parliamentary elections are being held in Belarus today. In total more than four candidates are running for every parliamentary seat in the House of Representatives (lower house) of the National Assembly of the country.
According to the Central Electoral Commission of Belarus, the ballot includes the names of 484 people, while there are 110 seats in the parliament. More than 300 candidates are members of political parties, more than 100 are women, 30 are members of the parliament of the previous convocation, as well as representatives of local councils.
During the election campaign 39 candidates refused to participate in the elections. As stated by the head of the CEC, Lidziya Yarmoshyna, they ‘’were backup candidates, who were in conjunction with a strong candidate from the very beginning, and in this sense they have ended their campaigns in order not to lose votes. ’’They cited various reasons: family circumstances, health, work, business trips and others. This is their right," TASS quotes her as saying.
Belarusian citizens will be able to vote at more than 6000 polling stations in the country and 47 areas outside, including four in Russia: in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad and Rostov-on-Don. The total number of registered voters numbers nearly 7 million people.
Buffets with a wide range of products, fruits and vegetables will be operating at all the sites. Voters will be able to taste food of domestic production: confectionery, bakery products, culinary products, soft drinks and dishes of Belarusian cuisine.
Many residents chose to vote early in Belarus: in the first four days (of five) early voting was attended by more than 24% of voters. The head of the Central Electoral Commission denied statements by opposition observers that they did not do it on their own. "The main thing is that there are no complaints from any voters that their participation in the early elections was not free. They are really transparent, democratic, active. These parliamentary elections are the most active and the most democratic since 2000,’’ Yermoshina explained.
The elections will be held under the intense scrutiny of international observers. According to the Foreign Ministry of Belarus, 333 experts came from the CIS. The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) will be presented by 341 observers, the Parliamentary Assembly (PA) of the OSCE has sent 39, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) has sent 19, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO ) has sent 9. The elections are also being observed by 65 representatives of the diplomatic corps and 14 foreign members of the CEC. The number of observers from Belarus amounts to more than 30 thousand.
