{"id":124044,"date":"2025-01-29T13:38:54","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T10:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/124044\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"despite-heavy-presence-no-complaints-from-observers-about-belarus-election","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/124044\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite heavy presence, no complaints from observers about Belarus\u2019 election"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the lead-up to the January 21-26 presidential election in Belarus, election commissions accredited 486 international and 44,361 national observers. The number of international observers nearly doubled from 248 in 2020.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n (Pozirk's screenshot of a video from the CEC)<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Foreign and “independent” observers, OSCE not present<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Four years ago, international observers were primarily officials from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) (184) and diplomats (64). This year, election commissions also accredited observers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (17), the Collective Security Treaty Organization Parliamentary Assembly (16), and the Secretariat of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (2). Additionally, 112 foreigners were labeled as \u201cindependent\u201d observers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analyst Alexander Friedman noted that most of these observers expressed sympathy for the Belarusian leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), which has consistently labeled Belarusian elections as neither free nor fair, was not invited in time to deploy a full mission. The government also accredited over 44,000 national observers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eight observers per polling station<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This election saw the establishment of 5,325 polling stations, with an average of 8.33 observers per station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2020 election, there were more polling stations (5,767) and more observers (53,868), with an average of 9.34 observers per station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Independent monitoring suppressed<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n


During previous electoral cycles, the largest observation campaigns were led by Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections, a coalition of the Viasna Human Rights Center and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, and Prava Vybaru<\/em> (the Right to Elect), a group comprising eight political and civic organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These initiatives trained observers and established data collection systems. Prava Vybaru<\/em> documented irregularities and filed complaints, often leading officials to expel, arrest, and prosecute their observers in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, Viktar Babaryka\u2019s campaign set up the Honest People monitoring group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that election, authorities accredited 1,573 observers (2.92 percent of the total), including 397 human rights defenders from civil society, opposition groups, or other non-governmental entities. Most other observers were deployed by government-established organizations or entities controlled by the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities denied most independent observers access to polling stations, citing COVID-19 restrictions. After the election, the government shut down opposition political parties and NGOs involved in independent observation. Human rights defenders who were not imprisoned now rely on open-source monitoring and encourage citizens to report irregularities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domestic observers at 2020 and 2025 elections<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pro-government parties and associations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Observers admitted through direct application process<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Observers from worker staffs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rights defenders and opposition parties<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Total<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

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