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September 26 – October 2, 2016

Belarusian opposition sidesteps post-election apathy and starts preparing for new election cycle

The situation has not changed
Belarusian opposition sidesteps post-election apathy and starts preparing for new election cycle

Putting aside the post-election apathy typical of the opposition, opposition parties started preparations for the next election campaign immediately after the parliamentary campaign The Central Election Commission, however, is reluctant to amend the Electoral Code in the near future. Apparently, the Belarusian authorities regard two representatives from the opposition in the supreme legislative body as sufficient concession to Western capitals until the next elections.

The Belarusian Central Election Commission has rejected as groundless two appeals to invalidate the parliamentary elections results.

The opposition has demonstrated good organisational skills, and immediately after the parliamentary elections has begun preparations for a new political campaign. The “Tell the Truth” campaign has submitted to the CEC proposals to improve the Electoral Code. The United Civic Party representative in the Parliament, Anna Konopatskaya, has already held two roundtables on electoral and economic issues and is planning to submit the amendments to the electoral law at the coming sessions.

Earlier, the CEC promised to consider changes to the electoral legislation immediately after the parliamentary elections. That said, the CEC head has given no encouragement to the initiative of the opposition parties regarding the improvements of the electoral code, and emphasised that the CEC played the main role in changing the legislation. In addition, she said that the amendments to the Code could be considered, if it was a joint initiative by all (or many) parties.

Apparently, the authorities are unlikely to consider amendments to the electoral legislation at the next session of the new parliament. The CEC head noted that the changes could be considered only after studying the OSCE/ODIHR final report on the results of the parliamentary elections in Belarus, which should be published in November.

On the one hand, Minsk would like to see the reaction of the West to novelties in the Belarusian political life and to the emergence of the opposition in the parliament, and on the other – to see the opposition’s commitment to work together in order to strengthen their positions.

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