Fourth day of early voting brings new turnout record

February 23, Pozirk. Belarus’ central election commission has reported that 33.61 percent of registered voters cast ballots on the fourth day of early voting in Belarus’ parliamentary and local elections.

The early voting takes place from February 20 to 24 with the main election day set for Sunday, February 25.

International organizations, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and Belarusian election monitoring groups have criticized the early voting procedure as vulnerable to abuse. Belarusian human rights organizations say that early voting is the key element of the government’s vote rigging machine.

The fourth day’s official early voting turnout rose from 13.72 percent in the 2004 parliamentary election, to 18.8 percent in 2008, 19.6 percent in 2012, 24.31 percent in 2016 and 27.5 percent in 2019.

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) concluded that all these polls fell short of democratic standards for free and fair elections.

Minsk has not invited any ODIHR observers this year, but said that nearly 300 international monitors have been deployed. Most represent the Commonwealth of Independent States and other Russia-led bodies.

The central election commission has not registered a single opposition candidate for the contests. The opposition is also not represented in the election commissions.

The Belarusian pro-democracy forces have urged voters to sit out the vote and watch a live YouTube event titled “I Choose a New Belarus!” on February 25 instead.

“Make the right choice and stay home on the non-election day. They are offering us to pretend that we have a choice, but it is a lie,” Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja’s office appealed to voters. “Do not participate in the deception and watch the YouTube marathon.”

The show will feature more than 20 speakers, including artists, activists and economists. They will share their vision of “moving from a dictatorship of lies and fear to a new Belarus.”