Human rights defender Aleh Matskevich received an answer to his complaint Barysau election constituency #62 almost a week after the end of the election.

The answer was signed by the head of constituency election commission #62 Vasil Barannik. “Having read an explanatory note of the head of precinct election commission #9 Zavadski Andrei Andreyevich, the constituency election commission of the Barysau election constituency #62 informs that following provisions of Article 52 of the Electoral Code of the Republic of Belarus the precinct election commission provided the possibility to vote for those who could not come to the polling stations because of their state of health or other important reasons. It seems impossible to check up the facts of violation of Article 54 of the Electoral Code mentioned by you, as you didn't specify the surnames and addresses of the electors whom, to you mind, violations on the part of the election commission, concerned,” reads the answer received by Mr. Matskevich.

In fact, it is quite easy to check who really invited the commission members for home voting. In his complaint Aleh Matskevich stated that at 10.a.m. - 1.30 p.m. the box for home voting was brought to two electors who couldn't call the commission members as they were in an unconscious state; three more were no longer alive; five people openly stated they hadn't invited the commission members; eleven were absent from home; sixteen had already voted at the polling station. The only thing the constituency election commission had to do to check the facts described by Matskevich was to compare the register of applications for home voting with the lists of those who voted at home.

“Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”