OSCE to forbid Lukashenka from appointing Yarmoshyna?
A decision about sticking or not sticking to this recommendation will be taken at a special meeting with the state leader.
OSCE worked on new "recommendations" for our country after the 2012 election. Transparent vote count – every ballot paper should be shown to observers – was among them. And... the organization demanded that the state leader had to be deprived of the right to appoint the CEC chairperson. CEC spokesperson Mikalai Lazavik has refused to discuss the recommendations.
Mikalai Lazavik: “The issue will be discussed at the highest level - at a meeting with the President. The state administration will decide which of the OSCE recommendations should be implemented."
Euroradio has found out that the meeting will be held one of these days. But Mikalai Lazavik says that the CEC does not refuse a dialogue.
Mikalai Lazavik: “We do not refuse to discuss the suggestions and we think that a constructive dialogue is possible."
But the CEC spokesperson did not say whom the dialogue should be conducted with. Meanwhile, the "OSCE priority recommendation" says: "An election reform should be conducted before the next election. The process should be transparent and affect all segments of the society."
Head of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee Aleh Hulak has drawn attention to the fact that the OSCE would like to deprive Lukashenka of his right to appoint the CEC chairperson.
Aleh Hulak: “The Central Election Commission should elect the winner, not the head of its team – and the CEC chairperson keeps noting that she is a member of the presidential team."
“Yarmoshyna's issue" is one of the tree "top priorities" for the UCP alongside with transparent vote count and early voting abolition. Party leader Anatol Lyabedzka does not think that OSCE recommendations will be discussed at Lukashenka's meeting.
Anatol Lyabedzka: “The last election campaign will be analyzed at the meeting – they will decide what to do with the boycotters and how to decrease the sums spent on candidates."
BAJ chairperson Zhanna Litvina supports step-by-step changes: "We have made our suggestions concerning the law "On Mass Media". Changes in the Election Code will be of little use without it."
Photo by: Zmitser Lukashuk
