LOCAL ELECTIONS IN BELARUS

A Report By the International League for Human Rights

April 27, 1999

Background

On December 24, 1998, President Alexander Lukashenko ordered local elections to be conducted on April 4, 1999. The decree was signed on the basis of the Law of the Republic of Belarus on Election of Deputies of Local Councils which came into legal force only five days later - on December 29. The law was adopted by the House of Representatives - a legislature handpicked by Lukashenko, which replaced the 13th Supreme Soviet of Belarus, the democratically elected parliament.

Analysis of the Election Law: Restrictions on the Rights of Citizens to Elect and Be Elected To Bodies of Self-Government

The new election law is in fact a modified version of the old one adopted in the Soviet era. The major difference is that many democratic provisions were removed from the Soviet-era law.

The Law imposed numerous limits on the citizens' right to elect and to be elected, which contradict the Constitution of Belarus in both 1994 and 1996 versions.

Thus, Art. 7 of the Law allows citizens of Russia to participate in local elections. This is in direct violation of Articles 37, 38, and 64 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, which allows only citizens of Belarus to participate in the election. In fact, the right of Russian citizens to participate in local elections was stipulated by the Belarus-Russia Union Accord that was signed on April 2, 1997. However, the Constitution explicitly prohibits signing international accords that contradict the Basic Law.

According to Art. 10 of the Law, the right to nominate candidates belongs to political parties, labor collectives and citizens, through signature collection. Yet, Art. 69 of the Constitution of Belarus (the 1996 version) explicitly confers the right to nominate on all public associations, not just to political parties.

The law does not allow citizens who are not entitled to occupy civil service jobs to be nominated or elected deputies of local councils. The law on civil service requires professional training, relevant education, legal capacity, and absence of previous conviction as necessary requirements for entering the civil service. (Belorusskaja Gazeta, 14 December 1998). Thus, in passing this law, the Parliament further denied the right to be elected to a large number of Belarusian citizens, which again directly contradicts to the principle of universal suffrage reflected in the Constitution of Belarus -- both of 1994 and, for this purpose, 1996 versions.

The law maintains a clause under which any citizen who had a criminal or administrative conviction within a year before the vote may not be elected into any local Council (art.33). In so doing, the law violates the Constitution of Belarus, which outlines the range of citizens who are barred from running in elections as follows " Citizens who are deemed incapable by a court of law or held in places of confinement in accordance with the verdict of a court shall not take part in elections. Persons in respect of whom preventive punishment-detention is selected under the procedure specified in the law on criminal proceedings shall not take part in voting. Any direct or indirect restrictions on citizens' voting rights in other instances shall be impermissible and punishable by law.
(Available from http://www.president.gov.by/eng/constitution/constitution.htm).

Further restrictions on citizens' rights to be elected are set by Art. 62, which does not allow those citizens who were disqualified from running or who withdrew their candidacies in previous rounds of elections to run again in by-elections.

The election law contains numerous reasons for which a candidate can be disqualified from the electoral race. Those include: de-facto one invalid signature on the petition list (Art. 39, see explanation below); reporting of false personal information by a member of initiative group collecting petitions to nominate candidates (Art 36), reporting of false personal data by a candidate (Art. 37); unauthorized use of state-owned facilities and funds during the election campaign (Art.45), incitement of hatred, and public calls to overthrow the government during an election campaign (Art.46).

Last but not least, the Law allows a political party or labor collective or even petition signatories to cancel their previous decision to nominate a candidate just three days before the election. In fact, this allows the authorities to pressure the voters from labor collectives to withdraw an unsuitable candidate.

The law does not establish strict guidelines for early voting proceeding. Thus, it is allowed to continue five days before the actual date and no independent observers are required to be present to oversee this procedure. As practice of the Referendum of 1996 showed, uncontrolled early voting was a major source of falsifications and fraud committed by the authorities. Thus, it was claimed that more than 20% of the voters voted before the actual referendum date, despite the fact that few of them had a proof of their inability to come to polling stations during the normal voting days, as was required by the law. In comparison, in closely monitored local elections in St. Petersburg, Russia, in December 1998 only 3% of voters voted early.

Provisions Affecting Fairness of Elections
Belarusian election law does not outline the rights and responsibilities of independent observers. It, does, however, include a regulation under which anybody who interferes in the routine work of election committees should be removed from a polling station. The law does not provide a definition of what kind of interference should be punished in this manner.

The financing of the election campaign is carried out exclusively by the state. All foreign or private financing is strictly forbidden (except for private donations to an extrabudgetary fund, which is supposed to be open to all candidates). However, the law does not outline the procedures in which the funding allocated from the state budget or from the extrabudgetary fund should be distributed. It only states that "the procedure for distribution and use of the financing appropriated for the preparation and carrying out of elections into local Councils of Deputies from the republican budget and from voluntary donations to extrabudgetary fund are set up by the Central Electoral Commission."

The law (Art.47) places harsh restrictions on campaigning, as it allows to print only 1000 election posters for a candidate in an oblast (Minsk city) council and even smaller number for candidates for deputies of district and rural councils (500 and 200 posters respectively). Just for comparison, the average number of voters in one Minsk city council district is 22,000, which means that less than 5% of the voters had a chance to receive information about candidates.

The law provides for equal opportunities for all candidates to access state-owned mass media. However, the provision of the old election law, under which the right of mass media to access any information concerning preparation of elections and to attend meetings of any electoral committee has been removed from the new election law.

The law requires 150 signatures to be collected to nominate a candidate to an oblast or Minsk city council, and less number for district (rajon) and other city councils. The law further requires at least 10% of signatures to be checked. The Belarusian authorities apparently misrepresented the decision of the hand-picked legislature (the House of Representatives) in the final version of the election law. The version of the Law signed by the President stipulated a regulation according to which a candidate with 1% of his petition lists disqualified, is automatically denied registration. A normal petition list usually contains 3-4 invalid signatures. This means that it is sufficient to find just one invalid signature to disqualify a candidate, regardless of hundreds other signatures that may be valid. According to the claims of a member of the House of Representatives, Peter Zhushma, his amendment to remove the above-mentioned clause was supported by the majority of the House of Representatives. (Belorusskaja Delovaja Gazeta, 15 March 1999). However, the official version of the Law signed by President (and printed by the Presidential administration) maintained this rule. According to the same source, some 1,000 candidates were disqualified on its basis. All candidates well known to the public and many members of the Liberal Democratic Party of Belarus were disqualified during the registration process.

For nomination of candidates from political parties, the Law requires that parties have local organizations in the election districts, which directly contradicts principles of party organization outlined in the Law on Political Parties.

The territorial election committees are formed by local executive authorities and are de-facto placed under their control. Although citizens have the right to nominate members of election committees, the executive branch had no clear guidelines regarding the process of inclusion. In practice, candidates who belong to the opposition were simply not included in commissions, frequently on the basis that "more applications were received than the actual number of places in the election commission." No information was provided why these particular candidates, and not others, were disqualified. The election law makes extremely complicated the procedure of appealing the decisions of election committees in the court. Thus no such procedure is available to appeal the cancellation of the registration of a candidate.

Nomination of Deputies and Election Campaign

For 24,500 thousand electoral districts only 26,500 thousand candidates was registered. That is, 1.08 candidate per every seat. Only at the oblast level and in large cities do the elections bear a semblance of competitiveness. In the Mogilev oblast, 35 out of 60 districts in elections to Mogilev city council, had just one candidate. The representatives of the authorities account for 65% of all candidates to the oblast council 75% of candidate to district councils, 30% of all candidates into Mogilev city council. Almost all of them run unopposed, including all deputy chairmen of the Mogilev oblast administration. Similar situation was observed in all the regions of Belarus (Belorusskaja Delovaja Gazeta, 22 March 1999). In the region of Pinsk, there was forty candidates for forty districts. All of them were state officials or heads of state-owned companies. In the city of Vitebsk, the regional election commission was headed by the deputy head of the regional administration, whereas district commissions were headed by deputy heads of district administration. Violations regarding nomination of members of election committees were observed in cities of Orsha, Polotsk and Novopolotsk.

In Minsk, the only two candidates representing the opposition: Alexander Feduta and Vladimir Novosiad, were disqualified on the basis of one invalid signature. According to Novosiad, he received telephone calls from the local administration, urging him to withdraw. He was told "we received the lists of candidates who are to be elected. Your last name is not on this list." Before denying registration, the election committee announced to him that he was going to be disqualified because one of the members of his initiative group mentioned incorrect personal data when the group was registered. A member of the group was indeed pressed by the authorities to admit incorrect mentioning of personal data. When this trick failed, the 'one signature and you're out' rule was used.

The Procedure for Forming Election Committees

More than one representative per labor collective were nominated in Bobruisk where in one case as many as 15(!) members of the same collective were members of the same commission; moreover, they all were teachers at a secondary school whose director was nominated a candidate. The same situation was observed in the cities of Zhlobin and even in Minsk (Mendeleev district No. 28, district No.17).

Pre-Election Campaign

Because the Law strictly limited financing of campaigns to state funds, it created room for violations. Because it was impossible to use just 1000 leaflets to inform up to 20,000 voters, the Law provoked candidates to violate this regulation and illegally print posters and leaflets. This gave room to committees to disqualify those who were undesirable candidates, and turn a blind eye to those who were supported by the authorities. Thus, although he blatantly violated the regulation by distributing newspapers with his campaign materials free of charge, Mr. Papkovski, the Chairman of Minsk City Council who ran for re-election, was not disqualified.

In a blatant violation of the law, the information about candidates was absent at many polling stations during early voting. Voters were forced to make a blind choice.

According to the opinion poll of IISEPS think tank, about 80.5% of respondents could not name a candidate for election in their electoral districts. Most respondents acknowledged the blind vote. (Radio Racja).

Obstruction of Election Observers' Work

The All-Belarusian Club of Voters obtained two Resolutions of the Central Election Commssion with the same title "On the Procedure for Application of Part 3 of Article 9 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus On Local Elections." The Club has been conducting seminars to train election observers since September 1999, and it needed a document that explained the procedure for registration of observers and their rights and responsibilities. The Central Election Committee played a trick on them whereby there were two different texts, so that the observers were trained according to the false version that was given to the Club personally by Ms. Ermoshina, head of the Central Election Commission, on January 5, 1999. Consequently, the observers, due to this fraudulent action by Ermoshina, were provoked to violate the law, which was used by Election Committees to disqualify observers. Thus, the 'official' (and secret) version of the regulation stipulated that it was local branches of public organizations that could send observers to district election committees, regional branches could send to regional committees, etc. However, in the 'official' version, contrary to the one released to the Club, it was said that the central headquarters of the public associations had no right to nominate observers, so that all of the observers nominated by the Club (which was unaware of this 'regulation') were disqualified under this rule! This subterfuge reduced the number of election observers by a factor of three.

In the City of Mogilev, NOT A SINGLE observer nominated by public associations with strict compliance with 'authentic' regulation issued on December 30,1998, by Central Election Committee, was admitted to the polling stations. According to a regulation illegally issued by the Chairman of the City Election Committee Ms. Barsukova, election observers had to first receive her permit and only then get registered at polling stations. In the city of Novolukoml, Vitebsk region, observers were forced to leave before the vote count began. (Source: All-Belarusian Club of Voters).

Lists of Voters

Election committees refused to provide the lists of persons who participated in early voting in Vitebsk (regional Council districts No. 43 and 48), Zhlobin, Bobruisk, as well as in Minsk city Council district No.25.

Early Voting

Not a single election committee asked voters who came to participate in early voting whether they had an urgent reason to vote early (i.e. with an absentee ballot) rather on the actual election day - as it was stipulated by the Law. In the City of Zhlobin, only one election committee member per polling station observed the election. In Bobruisk, voters put their ballot papers into unsealed ballot box (district No.83).

Other Violations

Independent observers noticed the presence of local administration officials, who controlled the work of election committees in the violation of the Law. Open interference of local officials in the work of election committees was found in Zhlobin, Vitebsk, , Slutsk, and Bobruisk.

Violations on Election Day

In Minsk, students in dormitories were forced to go and vote, threatened by expelling them from dormitories. In certain districts, voting booths were unavailable, and multiple voting by one voter was observed.

Belarusian Helsinki Committee reported that the following irregularities were observed in every region of Belarus: election with one candidate, targeted rejection of the registration of opposition candidates, lengthy period of early elections, and pressure on voters by heads of enterprises or universities to come and vote. The majority of elected deputies are government bureaucrats, and election committees consist of representatives of the same institution.

Multiple Voting

In Brest, observer Gennady Samoilenko witnessed 153 cases of multiple voting alone in 4 hours in a period from 7:00-11:09 a.m. before he was forcefully expelled from the polling station!

Vote Count

The most widespread violation during the vote count was mixing into one pile ballot papers from early and regular voting, which made it impossible to control fairness of early voting. These violations took place in Brest (district No.2), Minsk (No.16, 81) Mogilev (No. 40, 45, 46, 51, 79), Vitebsk (No. 43). In Vitebsk, public observer Mr. Verenich independently counted ballots at his station, and found the number was 590, while the official results raised the number to 876, or almost 50% more.

Observers from Belarusian NGOs have reported violations during the local elections in Belarus on 4 April, RFE/RL's Belarusian Service reported on 5 April. According to those reports, one polling station in the Haradotski district of Vitsebsk Oblast was not open, while the commission was visiting voters at home with the ballot boxes. Observers from Homel questioned the official turnout of 66 percent, saying that at three monitored constituencies it was below 40 percent. In Brest, two candidates were present at the ballot boxes all day prompting voters to vote for them. Belapan reported that, according to Social Democratic Party activists, people with ballot boxes in Barysau visited voters at home, accompanied by a police officer in an "attempt to intimidate those residents of the city who had no intention to take part in the [election] farce." RFERL

Conclusions

By brutally ignoring the principles of democracy and the rule of law, President Lukashenko has managed to create obedient local councils, still known as soviets. Not only has he passed a law which contradicted all principles of democracy, he and his appointees felt free to break it whenever it was expedient and necessary to achieve the goals of securing the election turnout and making sure that the 'official' candidates would still be elected.

Long before the campaign started, the anti-democratic election law excluded any possibility that the vote would be either free or fair, particularly by barring opposition leaders with administrative offenses from participation, and creating wide opportunites for early and frequent voting

On the international front, even for those inclined to think the local vote could be legitimate in some fashion, Lukashenko's strategy was utterly exposed. Thus, while the OSCE mission turned a blind eye to the fact that the Law was adopted by an illegitimate parliament, and sent its election observers ("assessors"), under the pretext that their real task was not to observe, bu to "monitor violations of the Law," Amb. Wieck, head of the OSCE mission, did acknowledge that the vote fell short of international standards.

Finally, for a growing number of the voters, the unfairness of election became clear through the very process of participation in the political farce.

The local election process in Belarus showed that all the violations of the democratic standards and the rule of law in Belarus have one source: the illegitimate Constitution of 1996 pushed through illegal referendum by Lukashenko. The current political system leaves no room for democratic government or free expression of the people's will. The local election campaign has become a training ground to prepare for future controlled parliamentary and presidential elections, and for a possible referendum on unification with Russia. There is no doubt that the democratic principles will be violated at any election that takes place while the political and legal situation in Belarus remain as they are now.

OSCE Mission Reaction

The OSCE Advisory and Monitoring Group (AMG) gave only preliminary assessment of the elections. Amb. Wieck said at the conference that the AMG sent 34 observers to the ballot sites, which is more than it was planned (first it was announced that there will be only 18). Amb. Wieck mentioned that the observers were sent not as official monitors but to "monitor all the stages of the election process". It was decided not to start an Election Observation Program because of the National Assembly (official parliament) decision not to follow the OSCE AMG recommendations concerning the Law on Elections of Deputies for Local Councils.

To date, it is not unambiguously clear as to whether the OSCE AMG found the April 4 election legitimate or not. Amb. Wieck noted at a press conference after the vote that there only two parties participating at the elections (both Communist) and that some 80% of the candidates were registered from civic organizations. The opposition Communist Party withdrew several candidates because of alleged irregularities in several constituencies.

The pre-election campaign was criticized by Amb. Wieck, mostly because the candidates could not distribute campaign brochures (not allowed by the Law), each candidate was given only 2.5 minutes of radio time, the posters in Minsk and some other cities appeared only a few days before the elections. The AMG considers that the election campaign started late and that the mass media did not pay enough attention to the elections.

Amb. Wieck said that the conditions of the election campaign dramatically changed its nature, from a democratic competition between parties, they turned into a state procedure to support its institutions and leaders. This was a welcome statement, and yet by waiting until the second round to release a full assessment (not available to date) the OSCE AMG ha confused the issue of legitimacy and for the public, the government, and other OSCE states, and vitiated its own critique of the elections.

The authorities were criticized for the registration campaign -- only 26,000 candidates were registered in 24,500 constituencies, which left some of the latter without candidates, especially in rural areas. "This unsatisfactory situation was caused by the non-democratic structure of the election law, the ensuing boycott of the elections by the democratic parties and by denial of many candidates for minor formal irregularities in the registration process." Amb. Wieck noted that almost all the representatives of the opposition parties were denied participation in the electorial commissions which made the latter consist mostly of state officials, state managers and labor collective directors.

The AMG noticed that the President's Administration issued appeals to the local authorities to provide the necessary 50% participation to avoid the second round of the election campaign and to demonstrate the interest of the population to the election process. Amb. Wieck said at a press conference that this "minor violation" might be explained by "lack of experience" and wish to provide the necessary percent of the voters participation. According to Amb. Wieck, the overall activity of the population was very low because of many reasons -- weak election campaign, political factors, absence of information.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. The OSCE should not send monitors or assessors or representatives of any kind, local or foreign, to elections in cases where its own advice regarding electoral laws and procedures has been blatantly ignored, and where candidates are not registered, leaflets confiscated, candidates harassed, etc. as outlined in this report.

2. The OSCE, at the level of the Vienna secretariat, the Chair-in-Office, ODIHR, and the Permanent Council, must coordinate its overall position regarding local elections in principle and decide whether such elections in fact fall under its mandate. All OSCE bodies should also coordinate and harmonize their response to the April 4 elections in Belarus.

3. The OSCE must declare that the April 4 elections fell below international standards or ideally, declare them as invalid, and must make clear to the Belarusian government that neither parliamentary or presidential elections in the next two years will be recognized if conditions on the ground and in the law remain unchanged.

4. Given the historical tradition of nominations from civic organizations and labor collectives, and the current law permitting nominations from civic organizations including NGOs and labor collectives, OSCE must make a strict, coherent, and forceful linkage between the lawful registration of NGOs -- currently being forced to re-register under a restrictive new law -- and the recognition, in the form of observers, of any future elections at any level.

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