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Slovak Observers Were Present at Controversial Belarus Election
Thursday 23 December 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, December 23 (TASR) - The Slovak Foreign Affairs Ministry sent six short-term observers to last week's presidential election in Belarus as part of the election-observation mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the ministry's press department told TASR on Thursday.
The Slovak observers, who were sent to several regions of Belarus, contributed to the drawing-up of a report on the course of the election.
Slovak diplomacy stated at the beginning of the week that despite a certain level of progress made in the pre-election period, international standards vis-a-vis human rights were seriously breached during the election.
Despite the promises made by the Belarus authorities, transparent and fair voting wasn't ensured and Belarus must make more effort to harmonise election legislation and act according to OSCE standards, which are binding for Belarus as a OSCE-member state.
Incumbent Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko won the election on Sunday with 79.67 percent of the vote. The election was followed by the jailing of dissidents and protesters and most recently by hints from Lukashenko that opposition parties in Belarus could be banned.
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