This has led some candidates to behave in a competitive and not always appropriate manner towards against each other on social networks, complain about each other in electoral committees and to the General Prosecutor’s Office. The international observers however, are true professionals, they see the most important things and ignore irrelevant issues. “The election process is improving and becoming more open,” said the special coordinator of the short-term OSCE observation mission and Vice President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Kent Harstedt, on the course of the present campaign. The behaviour of direct participants in elections is the focus of the international observers. “We notice that candidates are actively using broadcasting time for conducting their election campaigns.” “At the same time the mission registers some cases of the refusal of candidates to perform on television and radio or to participate in TV-debates,” says the head of the staff of the CIS mission, Yevgeny Sloboda. In my personal impression of visiting Mogilev I notice it is simply impossible not to realise that a parliamentary campaign is going on in the country. Colourful reminders of it are everywhere. Both in the town, and in the underground. One of the candidates even organised an entertainment concert for the voters. As Igor Buzovsky, Deputy Head of the President’s Administration said, “A number of parliamentary candidates use populism, giving people impractical promises in advance. Irresponsible statements, unfortunately, work at the level of populism. But what is hidden behind such statements? In judging the candidates, voters should pay attention only to the concrete deeds of that person.
By Victor Kharitonov
