DUSHANBE, August 20, 2008, Asia-Plus — Five observers from Tajikistan will monitor voting process during parliamentary elections in Belarus due on September 28, 2008.
According to Muhibullo Dodojonov, an official with Tajikistan’s Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CCER), Tajik Ambassador to Belarus Amirkhon Safarov, First Secretary of the Tajik Embassy in Minsk Saiddjaffar Safarov, as well as two representatives of the CCER – Dodojonov himself and Rajabmurod Ashourov, and representative of President’s Executive Office Hokimjon Mirsayev, will monitor the voting process in Belarus.
The Belarus authorities say that this fall’s parliamentary elections in Belarus will be transparent and democratic. The first round of the elections for the 110-seat House of Representatives has been set for September 28.
On July 31 the CEC announced the rules for campaigning, which appear somewhat more tolerant than in past elections. Candidates are permitted to publish their programs, up to a maximum of 4,000 characters, in official newspapers, including Zvyazda, Narodna hazeta (the official parliamentary newspaper), Respublika, and Belorusskaya Niva, as well as in region and district-level newspapers. Statements on radio and television must be pre-recorded.
Seven hundred international observers, divided equally between the OSCE and the CIS countries, have been invited to monitor the elections. Of the OSCE representatives, 50 are long-term and will start to arrive in Belarus on August 11 and 12; the remaining 300 will arrive shortly before the election date. The CIS long-term observers arrived in Belarus on July 29
By late July 448 candidates had declared their intention to run for office, an average of more than four per seat in the 110-seat lower house. Of these, 334 candidates do not have any party affiliation. Of the remaining 114, the opposition political parties’ totals are as follows: Belarusian Popular Front, 22 candidates; Party of Communists of Belarus, 18; Social Democrats supporting Alyaksandr Kazulin, 18; and Social Democrats supporting Stanislau Shushkevich, 6.
