Chairman of the Regional Election Commission Dmitry Khoma: "The elections will be held clearly and in accordance with the law"
— Dmitry Leonidovich, how do you assess the progress of the election campaign in the Vitebsk region?
— It is currently in the most active and interesting agitation phase, when candidates have approached voters with their programs and are addressing them through the media. A broad information campaign has been launched to attract people to the polling stations. So, it is practically impossible to ignore this important socio-political event today. All conditions have been created for every citizen to make an informed choice.
Of course, candidates act based on their own tactics or strategies, including how to conduct agitation: to focus on meetings with voters in work collectives or organizing pickets in places of mass gathering, to work directly or to additionally involve authorized representatives in agitation. Our task as election organizers is to ensure equal conditions for all candidates so that they can convey their position to the citizens.
In addition, the accreditation of observers continues. In the Vitebsk region, in addition to national observers, long-term observers from various international missions are monitoring the situation.
An important and responsible stage has arrived in the work of precinct election commissions – preparation for early voting. Today, training sessions have already been held with members of precinct commissions, and all organizational aspects have been worked out. Voter lists for voting have been clarified, but the regional commission is directing precinct election commissions to constantly verify the information entered therein. This is especially relevant for large settlements where the population is constantly on the move. Voters have the right to come to the polling station 15 days before the main voting day and check the correctness of the information about them. Each voter in the precinct commission premises is provided with the opportunity to verify whether they are included in the list and whether the information about them is correctly indicated.
Of course, from the experience of previous years, one can recall cases when a citizen, noticing any inaccuracies or not finding themselves in the lists, gets offended and leaves, while someone, on the contrary, treats these moments with understanding and clarifies the data. We do not relieve precinct commissions of responsibility. At the same time, it is necessary to put a barrier to certain dishonest voters who may attempt to vote at 3-4 polling stations. To prevent such cases, there is a clear algorithm of actions, which was worked out by members of precinct commissions during training sessions.
Thus, in order for every citizen to be able to exercise their right, significant preparatory work has been done, and I, as the chairman of the regional election commission, am confident that the elections will proceed clearly and in accordance with the legislation, as have all previous campaigns.
— One of the main features of the current campaign is the increased activity of candidates for deputies, the number of which turned out to be the largest in the history of elections to the National Assembly of Belarus. How much did this circumstance add to the troubles of the regional election commission?
— I believe that a large number of candidates for deputies is another strong piece of evidence that the election campaign is being conducted in strict accordance with the law. Every contender for a mandate who has approached participation in it conscientiously and meticulously is campaigning today. If a citizen, either due to negligence in organizing their team's work or inattentiveness in filling out documents at the preparatory stage, creates grounds for possible violations, then during registration as a candidate for deputy, all these shortcomings surface and lead to a negative result. In the current campaign, nineteen contenders dropped out at the registration stage, of whom nine took advantage of the opportunity to appeal these refusals in court. In all cases, the court confirmed the legality and validity of the election commissions' decisions.
We cannot claim that someone intentionally committed violations; we are talking about admitted mistakes. But when statements are made about biased treatment, I suggest paying attention to this fact: the candidates for deputies registered in the constituencies in Vitebsk region represent the entire spectrum of political parties. This, in my opinion, once again indicates equal access to electoral opportunities.
— In your opinion, what is the reason for the large number of people wishing to try their hand at legislative activities?
— In my opinion, one of the factors that predetermined such a number of candidates was precisely the high-quality preparatory work of political parties. Almost two-thirds of the candidates represent these public organizations. It is particularly striking that the parties have worked seriously on the image of their representatives. For example, today, among party candidates, there are no individuals without income or officially unemployed, whereas in previous elections, there were quite a few such individuals.
Self-nominees have also been active – these are citizens who have decided to try their hand at political struggle, attempting to get elected as deputies by collecting signatures of citizens in their support. In addition, some large enterprises and organizations delegate their representatives to parliament, especially since the legislator provides for the nomination of candidates from the work collective.
— Starting November 11, televised debates of candidates will be broadcast on the Belarus 3 channel. How is the campaigning stage proceeding?
— Five candidates have already been warned for violations during campaigning. I do not rule out that their number may increase. Judge for yourself: if only 2-3 people attend meetings, then a candidate, seeing such an attitude towards themselves, understands the need to adjust their actions. And the voting is not far off, tension is mounting, haste appears, the risk of rash actions increases, which can lead, among other things, to violations of the law.
But overall, I emphasize again, the campaign is proceeding in a balanced manner and within the legal framework.