Professionals have been selected for electoral commissions - observer's opinion

August 24, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. People with a high level of professionalism have been selected to work in the election commissions. This opinion was expressed today in Vitebsk to journalists at a briefing dedicated to the parliamentary elections in Belarus by the international observer from the CIS, Deputy Director of the Department for Cooperation in the Field of Security and Counteraction to New Challenges and Threats of the CIS Executive Committee Murat Tashibaev, BELTA correspondent reports. "People with a high level of professionalism have been selected to work in the election commissions. This is not an assessment, but rather a general opinion, as, apparently, the time has come in the CIS countries when the serious experience accumulated over previous years is being used," stated the long-term observer, recalling that in accordance with his status, he does not have the right to assess the course of the election campaign at this stage. According to him, in the Vitebsk region, a group of observers from the CIS, as part of monitoring the elections to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus of the fifth convocation, visited seven district election commissions this week (Vitebsk Rural No. 21, Dokshitskaya No. 22, Polotskaya Rural No. 24, Sharkovshchinskaya No. 29, etc.). Sharing his impressions, Murat Tashibaev noted the sufficiently high representation of public associations and parties in the election commissions, and the provision of election commissions with legislative acts on parliamentary elections and necessary methodological recommendations. "Active work is also being carried out to inform voters about the upcoming parliamentary elections. All information is disseminated through publications and Internet resources of mass media and executive bodies, and information posters are displayed in settlements. The work of the election commissions is carried out in accordance with the calendar plan for the election campaign. The atmosphere in the cities and rural settlements where we visited is calm," stated the international observer. The international observer from the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly, Deputy Director of the International Institute for Monitoring the Development of Democracy, Parliamentarism and Observance of Electoral Rights of Citizens, Andrey Baranov, also shared his opinion with journalists. "Overall, the impression so far is favorable. I would also like to note the great patience of the members of the election commissions," he said, explaining that he personally witnessed how in one of the commissions, for 15 minutes, with the demonstration of documents, strictly according to the procedure, they explained to a nominee the reason for refusing to register as a candidate for deputy. "The main criteria in our work are impartiality and goodwill. Our goal is to ensure how the legislation works and to give reasonable, balanced advice, not to find fault," he added. In the Vitebsk region, 14 electoral districts have been formed with an average number of voters per district of 64.1 thousand people. District election commissions have been formed, comprising 182 people. 10.8 thousand people work in 898 precinct commissions. At the meetings of the district election commissions, which were held everywhere in the region on August 22, registration certificates were issued to 48 candidates out of 61 applicants. Of the registered candidates, 28 are representatives of parties. The main reason for refusal to register was the indication of unreliable information in income declarations; there were refusals due to violations of signature sheets, added the Deputy Head of the Department of Organizational and Personnel Work of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee Leonid Dorofeenko.-0-