MINSK, 31 January (BelTA) - Chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Belarus Igor Karpenko commented on the presidential campaign held in Belarus as he spoke in an interview to the ONT TV channel, BelTA has learned.
"Those, who wanted to see the true picture, did so. Those, who did not want to, gave biased assessments," Igor Karpenko said. "I have been involved in electoral processes since 2006, when I served as chairman of the Minsk City Election Commission. Then the first sanctions were imposed on me. I remember that they were constantly making assessments about the legitimacy of the election, making claims, and so on."
This election campaign was not an exception. The West had already assessed it before the election took place.
"Nowadays, when we travel to various countries where election campaigns are held, for example, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, wherever we are, the OSCE makes similar statements. They claim that there is no political competition and so on. But these claims are completely wrong. For example, we visited Azerbaijan, where 912 people ran for 127 parliamentary seats. Clearly, there was intense competition. However, from the perspective of the OSCE, if those parties that were funded by the West either did not participate or lost, there was no political competition at all,” the CEC head emphasized.
"This is why I treat these statements very calmly. We make choices for our country and our people. The election should be assessed exclusively by the Belarusian people and our national observers," Igor Karpenko added.
"Those, who wanted to see the true picture, did so. Those, who did not want to, gave biased assessments," Igor Karpenko said. "I have been involved in electoral processes since 2006, when I served as chairman of the Minsk City Election Commission. Then the first sanctions were imposed on me. I remember that they were constantly making assessments about the legitimacy of the election, making claims, and so on."
This election campaign was not an exception. The West had already assessed it before the election took place.
"Nowadays, when we travel to various countries where election campaigns are held, for example, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, wherever we are, the OSCE makes similar statements. They claim that there is no political competition and so on. But these claims are completely wrong. For example, we visited Azerbaijan, where 912 people ran for 127 parliamentary seats. Clearly, there was intense competition. However, from the perspective of the OSCE, if those parties that were funded by the West either did not participate or lost, there was no political competition at all,” the CEC head emphasized.
"This is why I treat these statements very calmly. We make choices for our country and our people. The election should be assessed exclusively by the Belarusian people and our national observers," Igor Karpenko added.
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