December 8, Pozirk. The Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections campaign says that Belarusian authorities have formed precinct commissions for the January 21-26 presidential poll in the absence of independent observation.
“The procedural aspects of precinct election commission formation remain without public control,” the group said in a report.
According to the document, authorities formed 5,325 precinct commissions with a total of 56,550 members.
The campaign questioned the central election commission’s claim that voters put forward more than 16,500 contenders to represent them on the commissions.
In addition to government-organized non-governmental organizations, the commissions include members of the pro-government trade unions, political parties and worker staffs.
The campaign pointed out that almost all candidates (99.5 percent of those nominated) have been included in the precinct commissions through a non-transparent vetting process.
In December, an association of former Belarusian security officers released an investigation into election fraud by officials in Belarus.
For example, it examined the composition of precinct election commissions. In 265 commissions, 63 percent of members managed the 2020 presidential and 2024 local and parliamentary elections and the 2022 constitutional referendum marred by allegations of fraud.
Some 23 percent were involved in two of the three elections, and 11 percent in one of those events as commissioners. The commissions formed for the January 21–26 presidential election have only 3 percent of new members, the BelPol association said.
