European initiative names and shames Belarus’ election monitors

January 30, Pozirk. The European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE), representing 13 independent European election observation organizations, has said that it exposed over 90 politically-biased observers deployed to whitewash what it called fraudulent Belarusian election.

Alaksandar Łukašenka and his officials “manufactured international legitimacy by inviting hand-picked ‘observers’,” its statement said, noting links of accredited election monitors to authoritarian regimes, Kremlin-linked disinformation networks and criminal investigations in their home countries.

These observers were “carefully selected to disguise the blatant violations of democratic standards,” the EPDE noted.

They knew that authorities in Minsk instrumentalized them to present the election to the world, EPDE member Łukasz Kondraciuk said, noting that Łukašenka turned election observation into a farce.

The list includes Polish politician Krzysztof Tołwiński of the pro-Kremlin party “Front”; Edikas Jagelavičius wanted in Lithuania on suspicion of acting against his country; Swiss politician Wilhelm Wyss; Heinz Wehmeier, a local politician in Saxony-Anhalt (SPD party) from Germany, chairman of the German-Russian Society of Wittenberg; Krastyo Vrachev, a Member of the Parliament of Bulgaria from the pro-Russian political party Revival (Възраждане); and Bosse „Bo“ Jonsson, founder of the pro-Russian political party United Sweden (Enade Sverige), as well as politicians from Italy, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, Moldova, Germany, Georgia and other countries.

Belarus’ seventh presidential election on January 21-26 took place in a purged political landscape amid a new wave of crackdown on regime critics. Belarus’ election authorities have declared Łukašenka winner with 86.82 percent of the vote, extending his 30-year rule in Belarus.

The country has not held a single free and fair election since 1996 by the standards of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The government stopped inviting OSCE monitors after the 2020 disputed presidential election, but keeps seeking flattering assessments from the Russian-dominated Commonwealth of Independent States and election officials from government-friendly countries.