MINSK, 16 February (BelTA) – Belarus considered inviting representatives of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) to monitor the constitutional referendum, Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei said at a press conference in Minsk on 16 February, BelTA has learned.
“In line with the Copenhagen Document, we do not have to invite the ODIHR to monitor the referendum. We had preliminary discussions on the matter with our counterparts representing the OSCE countries. We invited them to come to Belarus, discuss these issues and leave with an invitation for the ODIHR to monitor the referendum,” the minister said.
However, no interest was shown, and therefore it did not make sense to send an official invitation, Vladimir Makei explained.
The minister outlined deep problems within the organization that significantly affect its reputation: “The problem lies in the ODIHR itself. If Western countries stick to the same policy towards the OSCE/ODIHR, it will soon lose its significance.” For example, it has been proposed many times to come up with uniform criteria for monitoring elections and referendums for all countries. “In fact, we do not understand it when the ODIHR sends 400-600 observers to some states, and four to others. As a result, some countries, including Belarus and Russia, stopped inviting this organization to monitor their elections. We see that final reports on electoral campaigns are compiled in advance, they are highly politicized. There is no point in inviting such structures if you already know what they will say,” Vladimir Makei is convinced.
He believes that the OSCE/ODIHR should come to grips with this problem and draw conclusions, otherwise the number of elections they are invited to will decrease.
