Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections

Robert Biedroń and Petras Auštrevičius urge the responsible authorities to "ensure a safe environment for the Presidential election by providing protective personal equipment for election personnel, adjusting the voting facilities to guarantee health and safety of participating citizens and ensuring undisturbed work of the election observers.”

A peculiarity of this year’s election is the context of the coronavirus pandemic, which affected the process of nominating representatives of parties and public associations and the procedure for holding meetings of the bodies that formed the TECs.

55 applications were submitted to the CEC to request the registration of groups formed to nominate future presidential candidates, which is an all-time record in the history of Belarusian presidential elections.

The Central Election Commission has registered 15 groups formed to support the nominations of future presidential candidates. These include the incumbent Aliaksandr Lukashenka, former Belgazprombank CEO Viktar Babaryka, ex-MP Hanna Kanapatskaya, BSDH party leader Siarhei Cherachen, United Civil Party chairman Mikalai Kazlou, and Tell the Truth leader Andrei Dzmitryeu.

The election is taking place against the background of the coronavirus pandemic, which is a serious challenge carrying enormous risks for lives of both the direct participants in the electoral process and other citizens of the country as a whole.

Representatives of "Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections", the country’s only non-partisan election monitoring initiative, held yesterday their first online press conference to announce the launch of a long-term observation of the August 9 presidential election.

The campaign season for Belarus’ presidential elections, scheduled for August 9, saw sweeping repression against civil society by authorities. Over the past week, authorities arbitrarily detained over 100 peaceful protesters across Belarus, charging them with administrative fines and arrests.

The House of Representatives, Belarusian Parliament’s lower chamber, has set a date for the presidential election today, the government-run BelTA news agency said. The vote will be held on August 9.

Members of the non-partisan election observation campaign “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections” sent today to the Central Election Commission, the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court a set of key proposals on this year’s presidential election scheduled for late August.