Lidiya Ermoshina: presidential campaign intensely monitored

The presidential election campaign in Belarus is being heavily monitored by both home and foreign observers. The number of international observers is expected to race above 1,000, chairman of the central election commission Lidiya Ermoshina told reporters on March 9. “As of today 704 international observers have been granted accreditation in Belarus. There are over 814 nominees for the status of an observer. We expect some 435 CIS observers and approximately the same number of OSCE ODIHR observers to monitor the election”, the head of the Belarusian central election commission said. Besides from the main two observation missions – the CIS and OSCE ODIHR – the status of international observers was given to representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Belarus-Russia Union State, the CIS Interparliamentarian Assembly, members of the central election commissions of Kazakhstan, Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Lithuania and Latvia. “EU ambassadors working in Belarus have also applied for a status of observers. They will be accredited as representatives of their countries”, Lidiya Ermoshina added. The central election commission of Poland informed their Belarusian colleagues that its members will not attend the observation process in Belarus since it is not stipulated in the Polish legislation. The Ukrainian central election commission has not sent their representatives because a parliamentary election campaign in underway in Ukraine, Lidiya Ermoshina said.