MINSK, 26 February (BelTA) – CIS observers have not detected any violations during Belarus’ elections, CIS Secretary General and head of the CIS observation mission at Belarus’ elections Sergei Lebedev told reporters at a press conference at the CEC Information Center on 26 February, BelTA has learned.
“The mission included 235 international observers from the CIS countries, with the exception of Ukraine and Moldova. Our mission began to work on 22 January. At the first stage, the monitoring was conducted by 50 long-term observers who traveled to the regions, met with representatives of political parties who nominated their candidates to the House of Representatives, and held talks with official structures responsible for the electoral process. Short-term observers came to Belarus during early voting. We had the opportunity to monitor the elections both in the city of Minsk and in all regions,” said the head of the CIS mission.
Sergei Lebedev emphasized that the CIS mission was guided primarily by the national legislation of Belarus. “Another guiding principle was an objective, goodwill approach, non-interference in the internal affairs of the Republic of Belarus,” he noted.
“We have visited 1,819 polling stations. We were impressed by the festive atmosphere and good mood there. We saw families with children at many polling stations. Music was played almost everywhere, amateur and professional artists performed, cafeterias were open,” added Sergei Lebedev. “Our assessment of these elections is the following: they were held in an orderly manner, without violations. We have not detected any violations that could affect the election results,” he concluded.
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