Will opposition get into local election commissions?

The first step of the campaign is the creation of the territorial election commissions. They must be approved by local executive committees and boards of deputies from 20 to 22 July. Applications will be accepted until July 19, which is less than two weeks from now. Is the opposition going to send there its representatives.

"Our people in the regions are required to submit their applications, said Syarhei Kalyakin, leader of the left party Fair World, who will run for president.  The system allows you to apply where there is a registered structure. We will apply where we have one. We have more than 60 structures in rayons, so we will apply to almost all the commissions."

The BPF party is also planning to nominate their representatives to territorial commissions. We already know that the applications will go to the Maladzechna and Lahoisk commission and in local and regional ones based in Minsk. We currently have only about ten people.

"Naturally, the role of regional commissions is not that big, the leader of the Belarusian Popular Front, Alyaksei Yanukevich, names the main purpose of the nomination of the party members.  However, if a person is included in the territorial commission, they have the authority to participate in the meetings of election commissions and, accordingly, can observe the vote count and be present at the same time."

But the United Civil Party is convinced that "in the election, everything is solved solely at the level of district commissions." That is why it plans to gather its representatives there.

"Moreover, we would focus on quality not on quality, continues the thought leader of the United Civil Party and a possible future presidential candidate, Anatol Lyabedzka. We have already faced a situation where entrepreneurs were offered to enter the commission. But then they got caught between a rock and a hard place and could not even put their signature under any particular approach or idea. So here this is our strategy."

The civil campaign Tell the Truth which nominated Tatstsiana Karatkevich for president, is not plannning to nominate its representatives to territorial commissions. Apparently, they are part of the company's  Right to Choose-2015 campaign and will concentrate solely on observation.

At first, the 153 territorial election commissions across the country will be responsible for verifying the signatures, submitted by potential candidates, they will solve the issues of financing the election campaign of candidates and assist in helping to organize meetings with voters.

"And on the day of the election, the district commission sends the results of the vote count (minutes) at its electoral site to the rayon or city commission, lists the main functions of the territorial commissions the CEC secretary Mikalai Lazavik. They summarize the data from all the districts of their rayon and send it to the regional commission. From there, after a check, they go to the Central Commission."

In 2008, thanks to the presence of Pyatro Mihurski who has PhD in economics in the territorial commission, elections in the Shklou district were almost disrupted. As a result of voting, the Chairman of the Executive Committee Valery Ivanou was elected deputy. But Mr Mihurski refused to sign the final protocol, as in the minutes from the village of Alyaksandryia the voting results were marked in pencil and had the signatures of the commission members.