According to preliminary information, 109 MPs were elected to the Chamber of Representatives as a result of the parliamentary election. This was stated by the head of the Central Election Commission Lidziya Yarmoshyna in the night of 23-24 September, during a press-conference on the results of the voting.

According to her, an MP wasn’t elected only at Homel-Navabelitskaya election constituency #36, where only one candidate, a representative of the Liberal Democratic Party Siarhei Melnikau, ran.

“The election was valid there – the electors came, but the election was non-alternative and the overwhelming majority of voters didn’t vote for the candidate,” explained Yarmoshyna.

According to her, re-election will be held at this constituency. Most probably, it will be combined with another electoral campaign (the nearest one is the election to the local Soviets). “It is practically impossible to hold election at one election constituency taking into account our turnout requirements,” she emphasized.

According to her, there will be no second round of voting at any of the election constituencies.

According to information of the Central Election Commission, the turnout in Belarus was 74.3%.

Commenting on information of independent observers about the overstatement of the turnout by members of election commissions, Yarmoshyna stated that the CEC trusted only protocols of election commissions, signed by all members of the commissions.

“No data can concur with these documents as members of election commissions bear administrative and criminal liability for the preciseness of the given protocol. Observers, on the other hand, bear no liability, that’s why they can enter any number,” stated the head of the Central Election Commission.

According to her, complaints about turnout overstatement concerned only some 5-6 polling stations for the whole Belarus, whereas observers speak of it as a stable tendency.

Yarmoshyna didn’t answer the journalists’ question whether representatives of the opposition were elected to the parliament, saying she had only the surnames of the elected MPs without indication of their party affiliation. At the same time, she expressed doubt that representatives of the opposition were elected to the Chamber of Representatives. “None of the regions reported about it,” she said.

As said by Yarmoshyna, the CEC received 110 complaints during 18-23 September. 36 of them concerned conflicts between observers and election commissions, 1 – the behavior of members of election commissions, 6 – defects in the sealing of ballot boxes for early voting, 7 – issues of electoral agitation, 10 – irregularities in the lists of electors, 39 – other issues and 11 – domestic issues which weren’t connected with agitation and the electoral process.

“Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”