OSCE SAYS BELARUSIAN ELECTIONS 'SIGNIFICANTLY SHORT' OF DEMOCRATIC STANDARDS...
Published:
20 October 2004 y., Wednesday
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Vice President Tone Tinsgaard, who led an OSCE short-term monitoring mission for the 17 October legislative ballot, said on 18 October that the elections fell "significantly short" of Belarus's OSCE commitments.
The OSCE refused to monitor the presidential referendum held the same day, even though it was invited to do so by Minsk. According to Tinsgaard, the biased referendum campaign by the Belarusian government "contributed to a highly distorted campaign environment."
Tinsgaard said the authorities raided the campaign offices of opposition candidates, coerced many groups of voters to cast ballots in the 17 October polls, and conducted biased coverage of election-relates issues in the media. OSCE monitors determined that in 60 percent of polling stations they visited the vote count lacked transparency and was practically uncontrollable.
Šaltinis:
RFE/RL's Belarus Service
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
Moon bears pierced with metal tubes to extract an ingredient used in medicine have been saved from captivity in China.
more »
Georgian acrobat Ramaz Garshaulishvili is trying to revive interest in the circus by demonstrating his rope walking skills.
more »
The latest trend for New Yorkers who are low on storage space - storing clothes in the oven and kitchen cupboards.
more »
Around the world 10 million people live in refugee camps - more than the population of several small European Union countries combined.
more »
On World Press Freedom Day on 3 May the Commission will officially launch the Lorenzo Natali Prize for 2010.
more »
What was once some of Albania's most beautiful coastline has been turned into toxic dumping grounds. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.
more »
A set of two-square-metre capsule apartments in Beijing give struggling individuals a chance to have their own space.
more »
The World Bank is adding its weight to efforts to save the world's endangered tigers.
more »
The statue of the Little Mermaid that has sat atop Copenhagen's harbour for nearly a hundred years is unveiled at the Shanghai World Expo.
more »
Beijing city officials have come up with a novel way to combat the stench of the city's growing rubbish tips.
more »