Taking part in the Electoral Processes in the CIS international conference, Lidia Yermoshina, the Chair of the Central Election Commission of Belarus, told journalists that any assessment of the elections from the OSCE/ODIHR is better than deathly silence
Alexey Sergeev (ONT) and Lidia Yermoshina
“We can criticise the OSCE/ODIHR, but still it’s the most reputable election observation mission. Therefore, I think we need to co-operate with it. Any, even the negative assessments, are better than deathly silence. One should not view the OSCE, just like all international organisations, as a group of narrow-minded functionaries who never change and reject flexibility,” notes Lidia Yermoshina.
She also didn’t make any forecasts regarding possible conclusions by the OSCE of the forthcoming Presidential election campaign in Belarus in 2015. “The evaluation of the Presidential elections in 2010 changed overnight after the events in the square,” reminds the Chair of the Central Election Commission.
According to Ms. Yermoshina, the Chair of the Central Commission for Elections and National Referenda of the Republic of Belarus, it’s expected that around Br100bn will be spent on the Presidential elections in 2015.
“This campaign is not among the most expensive. Local elections are much more expensive because they involve more candidates. Nevertheless, we’ll try our best so that everything is held in a proper way,” notes Ms. Yermoshina.
The CEC expects that around 15 candidates will take part in the forthcoming Presidential elections. “I don’t think their number will be bigger because it’s very difficult to overcome the barrier in 100,000 signatures,” adds the Chair of the CEC of Belarus.
In his turn, OSCE/ODIHR representative Alexey Gromov noted that such forums as the international conference Electoral Processes in the CIS, hosted by Minsk, enables us to reconcile various points of view while discussing election observation methods. He also reminded that all the CIS member states are OSCE members. Moreover, the ODIHR representative said that it’s quite possible that an OSCE election observation mission will come to Belarus to monitor the 2015 Presidential elections.
Electoral Processes in the CIS international conference has been arranged in the Belarusian capital by the Secretariat of the CIS IPA Council, the CIS Executive Committee and the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus. Invitations to take part in the conference were sent to the Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee, CIS Executive Secretary Sergei Lebedev, as well as heads and members of the central election commissions of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Bulgaria, representatives of OSCE/ODIHR, the Association of European Election Officials (ACEEEO), alongside prominent politicians and public figures of the CIS.
The two-day conference tackled the issues related to the development of the electoral legislation in the CIS member states, international election observation in the CIS, and the formation of a pan-European approach to the international electoral monitoring in general.
