The Salihorsk District Prosecutor's Office considered an appeal of an observer of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, Uladzimir Shyla, concerning violations of the Electoral Code during the 23 September election.

The demand to hold a public check-up of the list of electors with participation of independent observers was simply ignored by the prosecutor's office. The prosecutor V. Belchyn explained the disappearance of 381 electors from the electors' list during one night by “qualification of the list of electors by members of the commission on the eve of each round of voting”.

The prosecutor's office also provided a similarly exotic explanation concerning the mismatch in the number of voters (the observer's number is about 200 people fewer than the officially declared one). As it was allegedly found out as a result of the prosecutor's check-up, the BHC observer “was not present at the room for voting all the time, he went out sometimes”. Uladzimir Shyla responds with irony: “The absence of Pampers seems to be the only mistake of observers at this election. May be it's worth to demand appropriate amendments to the Electoral Code from the new Parliament”.

What concerns the presence of the deputy head of the Salihorsk District Executive Committee on ideology N. Maskevich at the polling station #76, the prosecutor confirmed it. Unlike the head of the constituency election commission Tatsiana Yarota, he did not refute the presence of Maskevich as a duty official, but referred to the absence of the “prohibition on presence of the local authorities in the rooms for voting” in the Electoral Code. On one hand, the Code does not contain a direct prohibition on it, but it precisely lists the persons who are eligible to be present at polling stations: members of election commissions, electors, registered observers, journalists and candidates (who can be present at the polling stations during the counting of votes).

“Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”