Seventy-six representatives of opposition political parties have been included in precinct election commissions ahead of April`s local elections, Mikalay Lazavik, secretary of the central election commission, told BelaPAN.
Membership in precinct election commissions has been granted to 31 representatives of the "Spravedlivy Mir" (Just World) Belarusian Party of the Left, 23 representatives of the United Civic Party, 17 representatives of the Belarusian Popular Front and five representatives of the Hramada Belarusian Social Democratic Party.
The Belarusian Party of the Left nominated a total of 160 representatives for precinct election commissions, while the United Civic Party put forward 281 members, the Belarusian Popular Front 122 members and the Belarusian Social Democratic Party "Hramada" nine members.
Pro-government parties have been given a much wider representation on precinct election commissions. In particular, the Belarusian Social Sports Party has had 432 representatives included in the commissions, while membership in the commissions also has been granted to 427 representatives of the Communist Party of Belarus, 342 representatives of the Republican Party of Labor and Justice, 131 representatives of the Belarusian Agrarian Party and 69 representatives of the Republican Party. All of the 95 people that were nominated by the Liberal Democratic Party have been included in precinct election commissions.
A total of 1,572 representatives of parties have been included in precinct commissions, which is 2.3 percent of the total membership.
Commenting on the small number of representatives of opposition parties included in precinct election commissions, Mr. Lazavik suggested that some of them had put forward "nearly the entire membership without thinking whether the people would manage to have quality performance in the commissions."
"But the fact that political parties account for 2.3 percent of the membership of precinct election commissions is big progress compared with the previous local elections," Mr. Lazavik said.
