Opinion of international observers on presidential elections in Belarus

Belarus has seriously strengthened its legislation before the elections, thereby approving the measures of electoral sovereignty. But did these innovations work in practice? Did experts notice any gaps? The Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission of the Republic of Belarus Igor Karpenko answered these questions.

He immediately emphasized that the presidential election campaign completed a large political cycle of modernization, which was due to the introduction of amendments to the Supplement to the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus. There, for the first time, such a concept as electoral sovereignty was laid down, which was included in the Concept of National Security, approved by the All-Belarusian People's Congress.

"When introducing amendments to the current electoral legislation, we took into account the main areas that needed to be protected from the point of view of electoral sovereignty," Igor Karpenko added.

During the elections themselves, journalists had many conversations with observers (at the CEC Info Center, at polling stations), who noted that the elections were being held openly. Foreign delegations also had many meetings directly with Ihar Karpenko. When asked what the observers told him and what they emphasized in the Belarusian electoral system for themselves, the head of the CEC answered: "We did not command international observers where and to which polling station to go. We were sometimes asked to suggest polling stations, and we suggested them in Minsk, in the regions and districts."

According to Karpenko, the CEC always emphasized that an international observer could go to any of the 5,325 polling stations that were created to hold the presidential elections. This is, in fact, what the observers did - they came, they had the opportunity to communicate with both the leadership of the polling station commission, and with its members and with national observers.

Summing up, the head of the CEC said that all observers emphasized the openness and transparency of the elections. International delegations primarily assessed the opportunities created so that any citizen could come to the polling station and freely express their will.