{"id":120037,"date":"2024-12-28T22:52:09","date_gmt":"2024-12-28T19:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/120037\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","slug":"minsk-accredits-csto-observers-for-presidential-election","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/120037\/","title":{"rendered":"Minsk accredits CSTO observers for presidential election"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

December 28, Pozirk.<\/em><\/strong> Belarus’ Central Election Commission (CEC) has accredited 251 foreign observers for the 2025 presidential election. Since the week’s start, their number has increased by a factor of 2.7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alaksandar \u0141ukasenka, in power in Belarus since 1994, enjoys the support of all these institutions and seeks flattering assessments from the Russian-dominated CIS and election officials from government-friendly countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CEC admitted 44 “independent” observers, 141 monitors from the executive committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), 20 from foreign electoral bodies and eight from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also approved 18 monitors from the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly, three from individual CIS parliaments, two from the NAM Youth Organization and one from the secretariat of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, it cleared 14 monitors from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belarus will hold its seventh presidential election from January 21 to 26, with the whole election cycle limited to just three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current campaign is taking place in a purged political landscape amid a new wave of crackdown on regime critics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belarus 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 marred by fraud and police brutality against peaceful protesters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections monitoring campaign by the Viasna Human Rights Center and Belarusian Helsinki Committee is working remotely over security threats for independent observers and ongoing crackdown on civil society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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