Republic

Foreign diplomats willing to monitor local elections in Belarus

MINSK, 25 March (BelTA) – The diplomats of a number of foreign states have expressed willingness to take part in the observation of elections to the local Councils of Deputies of Belarus, BelTA learnt from Secretary of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Belarus Nikolai Lozovik. In his words, to monitor the elections in Belarus foreign diplomats need to obtain an invitation of the Foreign Ministry of Belarus and present a package of other documents. After that, foreign diplomats will be accredited by the Central Election Commission. Nikolai Lozovik specified that by now many embassies have submitted the lists of diplomats willing to monitor the elections to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry. Moreover, some part of the documents has already been submitted to the CEC for accreditation. “We will consider the applications as they arrive. The bulk of them apply for short-term observation that is the observation on the polling day, 25 April. This is why accreditation certificates will be given to diplomats two or three days prior to the polling day,” the CEC Secretary explained. When asked which countries had shown the greatest interest in the election monitoring, Nikolai Lozovik said, “The embassies of many countries, including European states and the neighboring states, have submitted applications.” An arrangement to invite foreign diplomats to monitor the elections to the local Councils of Deputies was reached during the meeting of CEC Chairperson Lydia Yermoshina with representatives of the embassies accredited in Belarus. Attending the meeting were diplomats from the UK, Germany, Sweden, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Finland, the Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, France, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Bulgaria and a representative of the European Union.

БЕЛТА