Comment by the Information and Press Department on observer assessments of the parliamentary elections in the Republic of Belarus

On November 17 of this year, regular elections to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly took place in the Republic of Belarus. The elections in each of the 110 single-mandate constituencies were deemed valid, while election turnout was 77.22 percent. In Russia, polling stations were open at the Belarussian diplomatic missions in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad.

Over 1,000 international observers monitored the elections, including 350 observers from Russia. Many were members of missions sent by various international organisations.

Observers from the CIS, the SCO and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union State of Belarus and Russia recognised the elections as open and well organised in compliance with national law and international standards. By contrast, a joint mission led by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights [ODIHR], with members of PACE and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly taking part, came up with allegations that the elections did not correspond to the international standards for democratic elections and demonstrated complete disregard for freedom of  assembly, association and expression of opinion.

The two missions seem to have worked in different countries and were definitely guided by different rules and methodologies. As is known, CIS activities are based on explicit rules of international law as enshrined in the 2002 Chisinau Convention on the Standards of Democratic Elections, Electoral Rights and Freedoms. As for ODIHR, this institution is guided by the principles which it invented out of public view and which were not approved by the OSCE governing bodies. Many countries, Russia included, have repeatedly insisted that monitoring rules be developed and coordinated and have proposed specific initiatives in this regard.

Russia welcomes Belarus’ successful effort to hold parliamentary elections that fully respected international democratic standards. We believe the ODIHR mission’s assessments to be biased and politicised. We regret that the United States and EU countries expressed solidarity with them. We are looking forward to effective work with the newly-elected members of the Belarussian parliament, including at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union State of Belarus and Russia.