Belarus election: Woman attempts to manipulate ballot papers in Brest (video)

Anastasiya Kulichkova
Anastasiya Kulichkova

Euroradio has identified the young woman who was captured on video attempting to throw a stack of ballot papers into the ballot box at the polling station No 37 in Brest. Anastasiya Kulichkova works as an educator in the kindergarten located 50 m from the polling station where the violation was recorded.

By coincidence, the chairperson of the local election commission Tatsiana Mosina is director at the same kindergarten.

This year, Anastasiya Kulichkova finished her fourth year at the social pedagogics faculty at Brest State University. You may take a look and compare the young woman in the video with Anastasiya's pictures from her public social media accounts (already shut down by now).

Дзяўчына з пачкам бюлетэняў на ўчастку ў Брэсце — хто яна?
Anastasiya Kulichkova / social networks
Дзяўчына з пачкам бюлетэняў на ўчастку ў Брэсце — хто яна?
Anastasiya Kulichkova / social networks

Euroradio called the kindergarten in Brest where Kulichkova works, but our correspondent was told she was not at her working place. Tatsiana Mosina is not picking the phone and we have failed to reach out to her either in the kindergarten or at the polling station. When we asked about the video with attempted throw-in, the members of the election commission said: "You need to talk about it with Tatsiana Aliakseyauna."

The polling station No 37 is part of the Eastern Constituency in Brest, western Belarus, where the incumbent MP Anatol Dashko is competing with opposition candidate Hanna Kanius from Belarusian Social Democratic Party.

The young woman carrying a stack of ballot papers today was spotted by election observer Yury Vashchanchuk. When he stopped her, she had already walked out of the booth and was on her way to the ballot box ready to throw the ballot papers in. Disturbed by the observer, the woman seemed confused and can be seen looking at the members of the election commission who advised her to leave. This is exactly what she did. As per Vashchanchuk, one can hear on video that "Leave, leave!" was pronounced by the commission chairperson Tatsiana Mosina. 

The observer will file a complaint with a higher election commission.