Lazavik: Let them learn from us how free election should be held!

• 29.09.2011, 13:40

Mikalai Lazavik, the secretary of the Belarusian Central Election Committee (CEC) took part in the Minsk conference 20 Years of the CIS on September 29 and offered to carry out a workshop for OSCE election organizers.

“Let them learn from us how free and democratic elections should be held,” he said.

Lazavik noted that rhetoric over observing electoral standards intensifies ahead of any electoral campaign in each CIS member state. “This is the favourite theme of the OSCE ODIHR […] Unfortunately, European officials do not have the standards they are talking about. Criteria of evaluation of election by the OSCE ODIHR vary from country to country depending on political environment and political preferences of the OSCE leaders,” Lazavik said.

He underlined that the CIS has such standards: it is the Convention on Democratic Electoral Standards that guarantees equal approach to evaluation of elections.

Lazavik names openness as an important element of the CIS missions that allows avoiding many mistakes and violations of the law. “On the other hand, the states which accept missions appreciate their political neutrality,” Lazavik said.

According to him, the OSCE turns most attention to politics when assessing elections and determine its position long before the electoral campaign. “The leadership of the OSCE mission often interferes with political processes and even falsifies results of observation. Sometimes, as in Belarus’s case, negative conclusion of the mission lays a foundation for further political and economic pressure on the country,” Lazavik noted.