On November 19, human rights defender Siarhei Housha received a response from the Department of the Interior of Baranavichy city executive committee signed by its deputy chief Colonel Aliaksandr Trafimau. The police official succinctly summarizes that no trustworthy data on forcing the students of Baranavichy State University to early voting in the parliamentary elections has been received during the consideration of Siarhei Housha’s statement.

Activists of the "Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections" observation campaign reported back on September 19 that the students were forced to vote early under a threat of expulsion from University. Therefore, Siarhei Housha wrote a complaint to the CEC about violations of election laws, citing specific names and places of violations. The CEC did not consider the charges, but forwarded the complaint to the Prosecutor General’s Office, and later to the police department of Brest regional executive committee. As a result, the regional police officials redirected the appeal to their subordinates in Baranavichy, who carried out an “investigation” of the facts.

The human rights activist says that his statement was not considered at all and the facts stated in it have not been checked, as he had mentioned the specific polling stations, names of curators of student groups who forced the students to vote early on September 19.

“I have a recording of such a conversation with the students. None of these people has been questioned, no one has sought my assistance in the case, either. For two months, the officials just passed my complaint from room to room, and eventually issued the traditional runaround reply and advised me today, in case of my disagreement, to appeal the decision at the Department of Internal Affairs of Brest regional executive committee,” said Siarhei Housha.