Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections

At least 11 election observers have been detained in various parts of Belarus after the early voting phase was launched on Tuesday, August 4, according to “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections” and media reports.

The quotas of observers at polling stations introduced by CEC Resolution No. 115 made the election process completely inaccessible for independent observation and non-transparent to the public. This is a violation of one of the basic principles of democratic elections — the principle of publicity.

On 24 July, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka publicly stated that he was prepared to use the Armed Forces to “restore order” and put down street protests and demonstrations. This remark was made in the context of an upcoming presidential election on 9 August, in which the incumbent will be seeking re-election for his sixth term. It follows weeks of mass protests against electoral violations across the country, all of them peaceful except those that were brutally dispersed by the authorities which resulted in isolated incidents of police-provoked violence.

Police in Belarus have arbitrarily arrested journalists, bloggers, and political activists ahead of the August 9, 2020 presidential election and pressed charges against two potential candidates, Human Rights Watch said today.

Minsk courts continue to convict innocent people on trumped-up charges; MFA blocks accreditation of foreign reporters ahead of August 9 election; 13 people arrested over July 14 protest

As the presidential election on 9 August approaches in Belarus, the authorities are stepping up their crackdown on all dissent without pause. On 30 July, they announced a new criminal investigation against prominent video blogger and opposition politician Siarhei Tsikhanouski.

Opposition leader Mikalai Statkevich and critical vlogger Siarhei Tsikhanouski are facing new criminal charges, the Investigative Committee’s official Telegram channel said.

A group of reporters were briefly detained by the police yesterday afternoon, July 29, after they arrived to the KGB headquarters in central Minsk to cover the filing of petitions requesting the release of arrested presidential nominee Viktar Babaryka, baj.by said. The police also detained some 40 people who came to file petitions.

People around the world are deeply disturbed by images, video footage and reports coming out of Belarus, which expose a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters. Sign the petition demanding that police violence ends now.

An ad hoc meeting of EU and Belarus senior officials took place, today, in Brussels. The discussions focused on the situation in the field of human rights and democracy in the context of the upcoming Presidential elections in Belarus on 9 August.

We once again call on the Belarusian authorities to ensure the full exercise of fundamental human rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Copenhagen Document and other international human rights instruments.

The Central Election Commission has limited the number of observers who will be allowed to monitor the process of voting at polling stations, citing coronavirus statistics as the cause for the controversial decision.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will not send observers to the upcoming August 9 presidential elections in Belarus, despite an invitation from the Belarusian side.

The Supreme Court confirmed at yesterday’s hearing the July 14 decision by the Central Election Commission, which rejected the presidential nomination bid of Valery Tsapkala, one of Aliaksandr Lukashenka’s key rivals in the August 9 election.

The Belarusian authorities must halt their crackdown on all dissent ahead of the presidential election on 9 August, and immediately end their vicious campaign of targeting women activists and family members of political opposition representatives using tactics fueled by misogyny, Amnesty International said today.