Ulad Vialichka: Cooperation with OSCE depends on political will of Belarusan authorities

Political games with electoral legislation will be quite popular in the next few years, as the authorities have to prepare for the new electoral cycle.

This was a comment Ulad Vialichka, the chairman of the International Consortium "EuroBelarus" made to the EuroBelarus Information Service upon the information that ODINR OSCE delegation is on a visit to Belarus to discuss possible amendments to the electoral legislation.

Under the preparation to the next presidential elections in Belarus the authorities need to demonstrate some update in the questions concerning legislation, believes Ulad Vialichka.

“I think that from the sideof Belarus formalism will be used as usual. To declare that “we will discuss this question” is a simple matter; but that’s another story when it comes to real discussion”, - said the head of “EuroBelarus”.

Even the question of election monitoring can be bargained over

That is why the situation is unlikely to improve in the future, assumes the interlocutor, and the Belarusan authorities will use this topic to demonstrate the unfrozen relationships with the OSCE. “I see no grounds for it to be different”, - stated Ulad Vialichka.

He believes that “it is very important for the OSCE to monitor elections at full capacity, whatever the elections in Belarus can be”.

However, now this question depends on the political will of the Belarusan side. “If this question will be present at least to achieve symbolic legitimacy of the elections, then we can expect that the question of monitoring will be raffled off as one of the elements in a dialog between Belarus and international community, together with the change in the electoral legislation and other transformations”, - Ulad Vialichka made an assumption.

Statement in the UN as ideological precautions

  Commenting upon the statement made by the representative of Belarusan Foreign Ministry in the course of the recent meeting of the UN Human Rights Council, the head of the International Consortium "EuroBelarus" noted that the tactics of the official Minsk is “rather naïve”. “It consists in removing claims from the side of the Western countries towards Belarus on the question of human rights violations”, - explained Ulad Vialichka.

According to him, such kind of actions can hardly bring any good to Belarusan authorities: “It is rather a means of ideological precautions that can look like mutual claim for the inexperienced people. Nevertheless, they can hardly be called mutual, as they are based on different criteria. However, it can do for an average Belarusan citizen; especially for those who want to get even with the West”.

Ulad Vialichka found the fact that the Belarusan Foreign Ministry recently demonstrated groundlessness of its argument about the priority of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states a mere change in articulation of ideas.

“If earlier the defense was employed, now the articulation acquires tough traits. Belarusan authorities seek to present claims on a foreign territory. Whereas nothing really has changed, - assumes the chairman of the International Consortium "EuroBelarus". – We are dealing with the questions of ideological significance. It is clear that the biased claims of Belarusan Foreign Ministry don’t influence any international agreements. And in this case it is the Belarusan side that demonstrates the policy of double standards “.