BHC chairperson: Transparent ballot boxes cannot make election transparent

The transparent ballot boxes that will appear at polling stations this year are not going to make the voting more democratic, chairperson of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee Aleh Hulak told Euroradio.

Transparent ballot boxes ‘are just for the image’, CEC chairperson Lidziya Yarmoshyna said on July 28. On the whole, Yarmoshyna is right, the BHC chairperson thinks.

“The presence or absence of transparent ballot boxes and security cameras at polling stations cannot solve the problem of unfair elections,” the human rights defender said. “They do add some benefits but this is not essential.”

Even if additional ballot papers are put in a transparent ballot box, there is not going to be any reaction to it, Aleh Hulak thinks. The main problems are the members of election committees and the reluctance of the public prosecutor’s office to react to violation reports and ‘use legal mechanisms in response to them’, the BHC chairperson thinks.

Electronic voting will not make the Belarusian election transparent and democratic either and there are two problems about it. Firstly, Belarusians are not that used to electronic things yet and are even reluctant to use bank cards. Secondly, the electronic voting system gives even more chances to manipulate the numbers. Furthermore, electronic voting is not that common in the world.

Photo: svaboda.org