{"id":56921,"date":"2023-12-21T22:18:19","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T19:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=56921"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","slug":"belarusian-authorities-form-loyal-election-committees-intimidate-activists","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/","title":{"rendered":"Belarusian authorities form loyal election commissions, intimidate activists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>December 21, <em>Pozirk.<\/em><\/strong> Belarusian authorities have moved to establish absolute control over all stages of elections while forming territorial and local commissions for the 2024 vote, the Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections campaign said in a report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As before, the government relies on major loyal alliances, the independent observers said. These are the Belarusian National Youth Union, Bie\u0142aja Ru\u015b, the Belarusian Women&#8217;s Union, the union of veterans, the Belarusian Peace Foundation, and the Belarusian Federation of Trade Unions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Opposition parties and independent public associations are not represented in any of the established election commissions, and there is a gender imbalance. The share of female members (81.7 percent) significantly exceeds the proportion of male members (18.3 percent).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Observers were not allowed to attend meetings of the bodies that formed the commissions, and the selection &#8220;was accompanied by pressure from law enforcement agencies in the form of searches and checks on people who had been active in previous election campaigns.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That poisoned the atmosphere with fear and sent a signal to potential activists that they should stay away from election processes, the campaign said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2024, elections for the House of Representatives and local soviets (councils) will be held on February 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The country has not held a single free and fair election according to the standards of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe since 1996.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections campaign is run by the Viasna Human Rights Center and Belarusian Helsinki Committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>December 21, Pozirk. Belarusian authorities have moved to establish absolute control over all stages of elections while forming territorial and local commissions for the 2024 vote, the Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections campaign said in a report. As before, the government relies on major loyal alliances, the independent observers said. These are the Belarusian [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[16],"class_list":["post-56921","articles","type-articles","status-publish","hentry","rubric-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Belarusian authorities form loyal election commissions, intimidate activists | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"December 21, Pozirk. Belarusian authorities have moved to establish absolute control over all stages of elections while forming territorial and local\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Belarusian authorities form loyal election commissions, intimidate activists | Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 21, Pozirk. Belarusian authorities have moved to establish absolute control over all stages of elections while forming territorial and local\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Pozirk_online\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/\"},\"headline\":\"Belarusian authorities form loyal election commissions, intimidate activists\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-21T19:18:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/\"},\"wordCount\":250,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/\",\"name\":\"Belarusian authorities form loyal election commissions, intimidate activists | Pozirk\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-21T19:18:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00\",\"description\":\"December 21, Pozirk. Belarusian authorities have moved to establish absolute control over all stages of elections while forming territorial and local\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Belarusian authorities form loyal election commissions, intimidate activists\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Pozirk\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Pozirk\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Pozirk\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Pozirk_online\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Belarusian authorities form loyal election commissions, intimidate activists | Pozirk","description":"December 21, Pozirk. Belarusian authorities have moved to establish absolute control over all stages of elections while forming territorial and local","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Belarusian authorities form loyal election commissions, intimidate activists | Pozirk","og_description":"December 21, Pozirk. Belarusian authorities have moved to establish absolute control over all stages of elections while forming territorial and local","og_url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/","og_site_name":"Pozirk","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/","article_modified_time":"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@Pozirk_online","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/"},"headline":"Belarusian authorities form loyal election commissions, intimidate activists","datePublished":"2023-12-21T19:18:19+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/"},"wordCount":250,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization"},"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/","name":"Belarusian authorities form loyal election commissions, intimidate activists | Pozirk","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-12-21T19:18:19+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00","description":"December 21, Pozirk. Belarusian authorities have moved to establish absolute control over all stages of elections while forming territorial and local","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56921\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Belarusian authorities form loyal election commissions, intimidate activists"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/","name":"Pozirk","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization","name":"Pozirk","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Pozirk"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/","https:\/\/x.com\/Pozirk_online"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/56921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"rubric","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rubric?post=56921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}