Belarus: Election process did not meet a number of key international standards for democratic and free elections

The campaign of election observation during the 2015 presidential election is carried out by the Human Right Center "Viasna" and the RHRPA "Belarusian Helsinki Committee". The campaign is aimed at evaluating the election from the viewpoint of the Belarusian eletoral legislation and international standards of free and democratic elections, as well as informing the Belarusian public and international community about the progress of the election and results of observation.

Presidential elections started in 2015 in an environment that was extremely unfavorable to the holding of free and democratic elections: political prisoners were still held in penitentiary institutions, systemic harassment of independent journalists persisted.

A positive tendency became visible after the release of political prisoners in August 2015: there were more opportunities for exercising civil and political rights during the electoral campaign, the authorities created no obstacles to the collection of signatures for nomination of presidential candidates and campaign events.

The Belarusian authorities did not use repression and arrests during mass events that were held by a part of the the opposition outside the electoral legislation. However, even the administrative punishment of the organizers of such events in the form of heavy fines violates the right to peaceful assembly, guaranteed by international instruments.

Nevertheless, the election process did not meet a number of key international standards for democratic and free elections. This was due to the lack of equal access to the media for all candidates, the lack of impartiality of election commissions, use of administrative resources in favor of the incumbent, numerous facts of coercion of voters to participate in early voting, the closure of some election procedures for observers.

The most important reason for criticism is the lack of transparency of the vote count, which does not allow to consider the election results as a reflection of the will of voters.

The full report is available on the Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections' website