MINSK, 2 February (BelTA) - The Information Center of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Belarus resembled a beehive, Andrei Belyakov, Head of the Center for Public Relations and Electoral Process of the Academy of Public Administration under the Aegis of the President of Belarus, member of the Scientific and Expert Council at the Central Election Commission of Belarus said in the latest episode of BelTA’s project “The Nation Speaks”.
“It resembled a beehive in a good sense of the word. Journalists, experts, observers, who performed their duties as part of this center, did not sit still. It was some kind of constant movement,” Andrei Belyakov said. “For the first time the CEC Information Center worked for four days. The center opened on 24 January. The opening ceremony was followed by a meeting of the CIS Advisory Council of Heads of Electoral Bodies. Simultaneously a tournament on the Vybor.BY board game was held with the participation of journalists. By the way, 812 mass media representatives were accredited for this campaign [481 representatives from 25 Belarusian media and 331 journalists from 70 foreign media]. For comparison, there were 419 of them during the previous campaign. The regional mass media also took part in the work of the center for the first time. The interest was very serious.”
The CEC Information Center worked round the clock. “The work did not stop for a minute. The format of the operation of the center was organized in such a way that journalists had an opportunity to have a snack, socialize, and had access to the internet. The whole atmosphere of a continuous, buzzing process had a positive impact on the quality. If earlier we observed that live broadcasts were organized only by television media, this time streams were organized by everyone. Moreover, such broadcasts always featured political scientists, experts, international observers,” the expert said.
“This campaign was informationally-packed. On 26 January, every two hours the CEC press conferences aroused great interest, because new figures, new facts were voiced, there were live broadcasts with all regions of the country,” Andrei Belyakov said.
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