European Brother is watching you

Only a lazy-bone has not yet promised  to watch the Belarusian elections closely. Everyone is making the point that they will observe not only the day of elections or the week of preliminary voting, but the course of the entire election campaign as well.

Certainly, the OSCE will be here to observe. Due to the fact that the Belarusian authorities sent an invitation to the OSCE well in advance, it is expected, that 6-8 weeks prior to the elections the long-term observers will monitor the course of the election campaign and closer to the day of the elections the short-term observers will arrive, just like in the previous years. Observers from the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States will be here too, they never rejected the invitation.

European Union MPs accepted the invitation of the democratic opposition as well. On 15 July the Socialist Fraction held a discussion in Brussels regarding the forthcoming Parliamentary elections in Belarus with participation of Belarusian politicians representing social-democratic parties.

The Press service of the Socialist Fraction of the EU Parliament informed the “Belorusskije Novosti” that the EU MPs were not sure whether they would be allowed to enter Belarus, however they believed that it would be crucial to make an attempt to come to “demonstrate their support to the goals of the democratic opposition”. The MPs willing to visit our country have already started filling in application forms for Belarusian visa.

The participants of the discussion called upon the Belarusian social-democrats to unite for the elections, to join their efforts and not to boycott the election campaign. Indeed, they expressed hope that the Parliamentary elections in Belarus would be “free and just” and that all the candidates would be in equal conditions and would have equal access to the Media.

Previously the Head of the European Commission Office in Minsk, Jean-Eric Holzapfel, said in an interview with BelaPAN that the European Parliament was not monitoring elections officially, however, some European MPs could observe election campaigns individually on their own initiative in a country of their choice.

Traditionally, Belarusian elections are observed by the OSCE Election Observation missions, which inter alia include representatives of the EU Member States, CIS countries as well as Embassies, accredited in Belarus. The European Commission Representation Office still needs to coordinate its input into the process of elections monitoring with the diplomatic corps of Belarus and the Belarusian side.

The “Belorusskije Novosti” reached the Office of the European Commissaire for External Policy and Neighbourhood Policy. The Press-Secretary of the EU Commissaire Christiana Homann confirmed that the European Commission “would closely monitor the course of the election campaign in Belarus” as well.

Ms. Homann said that the Parliamentary elections to take place on the 28^th September would be a crucial opportunity for Belarus to show its readiness for democratization. The European Commission was making it clear for the Belarusian authorities several times that it hoped for the improvements in the course of this election campaign. The EC hopes that the candidates from the opposition will have an opportunity to take part in the elections and the election campaign based on equal opportunities principle and that their representatives will be included into the election commissions as well as will have an opportunity to observe the counting of votes at the pooling stations.

The European Commission intends to support a number of local independent observers, “it would be our input into the democratic nature of the election campaign”, said the Press-Secretary of the European Commissaire.

Ms. Homann also pointed out to the necessity of guaranteeing the right for the freedom of assembly and seizing the pressure on the civil society.

Indeed, year by year all these representatives of the EU raise the issue concerning freedoms and rights again and again. They have no other choice as all these values remain unchanged.

In the meantime, Belarus also has little choice but to demonstrate respect to the civil rights and freedoms and to hold the election campaign in a democratic way. It is a must regardless of the need to develop relations with the European Union or in order to legitimize our Parliament in the West. As the President Lukashenko said in the course of the past few months, fair elections, first of all, were needed by the Belarusian people themselves. Let us hope that the launch of the campaign would be the first cautious step forward towards the mentioned above direction

Marina Rahlei