Republic

Local elections named successful

MINSK, 30 April (BelTA) – The local elections were held successfully, Lidia Yermoshina, the chairperson of the Central Election Commission (CEC), said at a session of the commission which summed up the elections. According to Lidia Yermoshina, the elections were successful. There were no violations that would have proved that the elections were rigged and provided the ground for reconsideration of the results. “The head of state also believes that the election commissions worked well,” Lidia Yermoshina said. The election commissions were given a possibility to use the funds allocated for the elections in the way they consider right. According to the latest data of the Central Election Commission, 21,288 deputies were elected to 1,495 local countries of different levels. Repeat elections will be held in 15 districts where the candidates did not gain the majority of the vote. “We see this happen every election campaign. I am not dramatizing this situation. I rather welcome it. This means the voters were careful about electing deputies to local councils,” Lidia Yermoshina said. According to her, this year's election campaign was calmer than the previous one. There were no serious conflicts or claims. The smooth elections can be considered a step toward the implementation of the OSCE recommendations, the chairperson believes. All in all, the Central Election Commission has received 18 complaints. The observers mainly complained that they did not have an opportunity to be in the immediate distance to see the vote count. Yet no proofs of the abuses of power by commissions were presented. The chiefs of all oblast election commissions and Minsk city election commission reported on the elections at a CEC session. According to them, there were no serious complaints or appeals. The campaign was calm, the turnout was quite high. Several chiefs of the election commissions pointed to the fact that political parties have withdrawn their candidates. For example, in the Gomel oblast the unified public party withdrew 33 representatives and the left party “Just World” - 28. The chairman of the Gomel oblast election commission called their decision as “an unsubstantiated demarche” and said there was no pressure on them on the part of the election commission. The decision to withdraw from the elections was taken by party bosses despite the opinion of some of its candidates who wanted to continue the election campaign. When asked about ‘ethnic tensions’, the chairman of the Grodno election commission said that there were no problems with this. The Union of Poles has not sent its official observers. CEC officials also drew attention to the inaccuracies in the voters’ lists and recommended the local authorities to be more careful about it in the future.

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