Belarusan National Platform of the Civil Society assessed the election campaign 2015

The participants of the conference “The National Platform development: new challenges, new strategies”, which took place on November 28-29 in Minsk, summed up the results of the presidential election.

Position

of the Belarusan National Platform

of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum

“On the civil and political situation in Belarus after the presidential election”

On the final assessment of the presidential election

Basing on the presidential election assessments given by the participants of the Belarusan National Platform, namely on the published reports of the Belarusian human rights organizations within the frames of the campaign “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections” and the Belarusian Association of Journalists within the frames of the “The coverage of the president elections 2015 in Belarusan media” we state:

- the election of President of the Republic of Belarus 2015 cannot be recognized as free, open, and equal;

- the results of the election cannot be recognized as the reflection of voters’ will.

The following facts noted by the representatives of the civil society organizations made the basis of the given assessment:

- the electoral process didn’t correspond to the key international standards of holding democratic and free elections;

- in the course of the election equal access to mass media for all candidates wasn’t provided;

- the work of the election commissions cannot be assessed as impartial;

- in the course of the election administrative resources were extensively used for the benefit of the incumbent President;

- in the course of the election numerous facts of voters’ constraint to take part in early voting were indicated;

- the counting of votes continually lacked transparency and was restricted for observation.

We also have to state that as early as during the preparation to election the opposition political forces didn’t make use of the existing political opportunities for building a constructive dialog both between themselves as well as with the Belarusian civil society so that to build a consolidated action strategy during the electoral campaign. Such actions made any participation in the campaign politically pointless long before its start. Basically, all actions of all the opposition forces – both those, who took part in the election, as well as those, who left the electoral campaign not long before its started – acted in the favor of the authorities.

Discord and conflicts between the opposition forces due to participation or non-participation (both on the eve of the campaign and during the campaign), as well as their actions during the elections only led to the exaggerated interest to the initially illegitimate and essentially manipulative electoral process with no real control over its quality and correspondence to the conventional international norms.

Thus, it is the Belarusan authorities that are responsible for the general conclusion – non-transparent and non-democratic elections; however, to a certain degree all key figures of Belarusan political opposition also bear responsibility for it.

The participants of the Belarusan National Platform call on all interested parties to engage in a dialog re the actual state of the political situation in the country, as well as common actions aimed at its changing. Without such dialog we see no opportunities for sensible and real actions in the political sphere.

Download the document (Belarusian)