People who vote twice will be fined with Br700K
Belarus abolished “propiska” (the Soviet-time residence permit) in 2008. Everyone can obtain a temporary registration at any place, keeping the permanent registration at the same time.
The European Radio for Belarus decided to find out how this could affect the work of election commissions during the parliamentary elections this year. Lidziya Yarmoshyna, the chairperson of the Central Elections Commission says that no cardinal changes should be expected.
“We are not ready yet to talk about cardinal changes. At the moment, we produce our methodological instructions in the same manner as during the previous campaigns. Nevertheless, the abolition of the residence permit and the transition to a temporary registration puts us somewhat on alert”, she said.
Mikalai Lazavik, the secretary of the Central Elections Commission, noted in an interview with the European Radio for Belarus that people would be encouraged to vote at the location of their temporary registration. If someone decides to vote at a permanent address, the local election commission will request the Central Elections Commission to check whether that person voted earlier.
Nevertheless, Lazavik admits that one voter can hypothetically vote twice, although he has not come across such cases in his experience.
Lazavik: “A citizen voted in one place, and then went and voted in another location. iN this case, the Administrative Code envisages a fine of up to 20 basic rates “for other violations of the electoral laws”.
Mikalai Lazavik also added that the facts of repeated voting by the same person could remain unnoticed.
Photo: bymedia.net
