Posted: 22.01.2025 17:45:00

Why Lukashenko instructed to extend work of polling stations in 2020

The Time Has Chosen Us documentary of the Belarus 1 TV channel tells us how provocateurs dragged out time at the polling stations in 2020 and how the problem was settled, BelTA reports

The tense situation at the polling stations on August 9th began to develop from the middle of the day. People were not allowed to vote calmly. The provocateurs used the already tried-and-tested scheme of the ‘merry-go-round’. They deliberately dragged out time, staying in the booths for 5-10 minutes, and did not leave the polling stations for a long time. Towards evening, artificial queues began to form at some of them. And by the time the polling stations were to close, there were cries that the authorities were deliberately preventing citizens from realising their right to vote.

“Closer to 8pm, information began to arrive that people were not dispersing at several polling stations. Artificially, as we already understood later, pandemonium was being created. There were just some huge queues of people who supposedly did not have time to vote. The question was what to do. The Head of State called Natalya Ivanovna [Chairperson of the Council of the Republic Natalya Kochanova]. Naturally, Natalya Ivanovna reported this,” President’s Press Secretary Natalya Eismont noted.

“I told Aleksandr Grigoryevich that there were still queues at the polling stations. According to the law, we have to close at 8pm. People had every opportunity to realise their right to vote. It was both early [voting] and the main day,” Ms. Kochanova recalled the conversation with the Head of State. “Perhaps, we should close them at 8pm, and that’s it. Meanwhile, Aleksandr Grigoryevich told me that we need to extend the opening hours of the polling stations, enabling people to vote. He told me that there would be no queues in 20 minutes. I immediately gave the command to extend the opening hours of the polling stations, enabling people to vote. There were no queues anymore, i.e., the queues have practically dispersed.”

On August 9th, 2020, the work of 33 polling stations across the country was blocked. Accordingly, 33 election commissions were also blocked. The members of these commissions were subjected to a real psychological attack.

“There were still a few polling stations left. I decided to go there and see what was going on. That’s how I came to a school on Kamaiskaya Street. I went into this schoolyard and saw there were quite a lot of people standing there. I went up to the porch and asked why they didn’t vote. They replied that they couldn’t vote here. I came in and there were these poor polling station workers sitting there. Everyone was just exhausted. There were two polling stations in this school. One was already closed and there was no one there. And in the second one, there was this huge queue,” Ms. Kochanova emphasised.

The queues were due to the fact that some people deliberately stayed in the booths for ten minutes and dragged their time.

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