As many as 389 international and 7,905 domestic observers have been accredited to monitor Belarus’ House of Representatives elections, Lidziya Yarmoshyna, head of the central election commission, told reporters in Minsk on Monday.
According to her, 289 international observers are members of the observation mission of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), including 29 representatives of the CIS Inter-parliamentary Assembly, and 59 are members of the observation mission of the OCSE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
The accredited international observers also include three representatives of Russia’s central election commission, two representatives of the central election commission of each of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Latvia, and one representative of the central election commission of Moldova. In addition, international observer status has been granted to 22 independent observers.
A total of 7,476 domestic observers have been accredited with precinct election commissions, 424 with district election commissions and five with the central election commission. Out of the total number, 1,600 observers were put forward by the Belarusian Veterans’ Association, 1,500 by the Belarusian National Youth Union, 1,427 by Belaya Rus and 1,089 by the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus.
Ms. Yarmoshyna noted that the number of observers would change daily. In particular, she said, the central election commission has not yet received an accreditation application from Matteo Mecacci, head of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s observation mission.
