Leanid Sudalenka, human rights defender from Homel, appealed to the Head of Central Election Commission Lidziya Yarmoshyna, and requested to brief the district commissions’ members on the decision of the UN Human Rights Committee on discrimination on political grounds.

In the appeal Sudalenka recalls that in 2004 he was denied registration as candidate for the House of Representatives by a district election commission of Khoiniki constituency.

“The commission stated that I had indicated my place of work incorrectly. In 2010 the UN Human Rights Committee considered my complaint and concluded that the Republic of Belarus violated my right to participate in public affairs and to run for the “House of Representatives”. The Committee also concluded that a case of prohibited discrimination on political grounds took place,”, said Sudalenka.

Since the district election commission will be registering candidates from 14 to 23 August, Sudalenka requests the Head of CEC to familiarise all members of district election commissions with the decision of the UN Human Rights Committee in order to prevent similar violations in the future.

“Lidziya Yarmoshyna is now urging candidates to register, complaining that there are too few of them. However, it is possible that in some districts the authorities will make way for the government candidate, the way it happened to me in 2004. So I request to familiarise members of the commission with the decision of the international court, which recognised failure to register me as a violation”, said human rights activist.

Cases of discrimination on political grounds have already taken place in different cities of Belarus in the run-up to forthcoming parliamentary elections. For example, not everyone is allowed become members of precinct election commissions.

Biaroza activists: “Discrimination based on political grounds leads to voters distructing election results”
Belarusian Popular Front (BPF) was the only political party which nominated their representatives to precinct election commissions. But they were not included.

BPF activists from Biaroza inform that the meeting on creation of precinct election commissions in their hometown was a mere formality, and was in fact reduced to approving the list of commission members compiled by executive authorities.

The members of the BPF who were not included in the precinct election commission believe that discrimination based on political beliefs took place, which ultimately leads to voters distrusting the election results. The activists appealed to the court with the request to recognise their non-inclusion into precinct election commission by Biaroza district executive committee as illegitimate, and asked to make a new decision on creation of precinct election commissions which would include the members of the BPF.

Reasons for non-inclusion in Maladechna: too old, too young, unemployed
In Maladechna, the representatives of the BPF party were not included into the commission either. The District Executive Committee gave farfetched reasons for their exclusion. One of the nominees was allegedly too old, another one – too young, the third one was unemployed (“he’d better look for a job”), and the fourth one was on maternity leave (“she’d better look after her kids”). On the other hand, a 34-year-old BPF nominee, legal consultant, also proved not fitting for the executive committee.

The nominees themselves claim that they did not expect any different result, because it was not their first time trying to become the committee members.

Representatives of the Belarusian Popular Front consider the explanations of the Executive Committee “simply ridiculous” and respond to the claims:

“If any of us was going to work in the commission, they would do so knowing that they would, for example, have to find someone to look after their child or to take a leave at work. And the unemployed ones have been denied, probably, because they have no employer to intimidate them”.

Discrimination of one of the BPF nominees based on his age appears unjustified on the grounds that he is the same age as Uladzislau Osipau, the secretary of Communist Party of Belarus, a permanent member of the election commission. In addition, almost every commission employs elderly representatives of the Belarusian public association of veterans.

The nominees also pay attention to the fact that a citizen gets the right to vote at the age of 18. Election Code of the Republic of Belarus does not include other restrictions on age for nominees to the election commissions. Why then the executive committee argues that a nominee aged 23 is “too young” to work in a commission?

Mahiliou: 39 people did not get into commissions, activists appealed to the court
Mahiliou opposition activists also file complaints regarding the non-inclusion into precinct election commissions. The activists of the BPF “Revival” and Mahiliou region organisation of the Belarusian Party of the Left “Fair World” appealed to the Mahiliou Court with respective complaints.

They are asking the court to reverse the decision of Leninski district of Mahiliou of 6 August 2012 on the formation of election commissions, and include representatives of the Belarusian Popular Front “Revival” and the Belarusian Party of the Left “Fair World”. The complainants also request to invite representatives of their organisations to the relevant meeting.

Meeting of the Leninski district administration, which formed precinct election commissions, was held in secret, so that it could not be attended by observers. No representative of Mahiliou pro-democratic organisations could get to the meeting either. Thus, 13 nominees of the Popular Front “Revival” and 26 of the Belarusian Party of the Left “Fair World” were not included into the commission.

Human rights defender Barys Bukhel notes that precinct election commissions in Mahiliou are now composed of 15-16 people.

“The Election Code provides that election commissions are comprised of 4 up to 19 people. Failure to include representatives of democratic parties in the commissions was for farfetched reasons, and probably on receiving instructions from above”.

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