www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN on the observation of the election of deputies to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of of the 7th Convocation

______Final report

November 21, 2019

KEY CONCLUSIONS 1. No amendments have been introduced into Electoral Code and law enforcement practice since the end of previous election campaign. 2. Same as before, the absence of guarantees enshrined in electoral law for representation of political parties-electoral subjects at the level of election commissions allows for using arbitrary and discriminatory approach towards opposition parties and movements in the process of formation of election commissions. 3. A significant number of members of district commissions (22 persons) and precinct commissions (950 persons) represent political parties that are not involved in the election process. 4. The process of filing appeals against refusals to register MP candidates is a mere formality, since there are no clear criteria for the formation of election commissions. 5. The election campaign is conducted under conditions of constant pressure against opposition candidates. Any and all political slogans are regarded as a violation of Article 47 of the Electoral Code of the Republic of Belarus (ECRB). State authorities resort to ongoing censorship of more or less sharp speeches published in the media by interpreting Articles 47 and 75 of the ECRB in an arbitrary way. 6. Opposition candidates made significantly more extensive use of social media and independent websites which allowed them to communicate key items of their election programs to voters. 7. The current state government is concerned about the activity of independent observers, especially those representing the “Right to www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______Choose” campaign, and is making efforts to neutralize the potential negative effect (from the government perspective) of observers’ activity with the help of “observation spamming”. 8. The Council of the Republic of Belarus is formed on a non- alternative basis with the inclusion of exclusively high-ranking officials. 9. A new trend of the election process is the emergence of candidates representing social groups that used to avoid any kind of affiliation with political parties (young people, mothers-328, social protest groups, etc.). 10.Early voting was used to unequivocally clear the 50% turnout threshold in voting precincts. Two main methods were applied for this purpose: compulsory participation in early voting (coercion of students, people living in dormitories, members of labor collectives residing in the territory of voting precinct) and direct falsification of turnout figures when the official figures reported by precinct election commissions (PECs) and the results of simultaneous vote counting performed by observers differed from each other by several times. In several cases, unauthorized persons were allowed to exercise illegal control over early voting process with the participation or direct assistance of PEC members. 11.Ballot boxes remain non-transparent and they are stored in improper conditions. Senior members of PECs took advantage of the fact that neither the ECRB, nor the methodology guidelines contain an explicit provision on procedure for storing the ballot boxes during lunch breaks and at night time. 12.Observers representing the “Right to Choose” campaign recorded a number of cases where non-residents of the territory assigned to voting precinct were allowed to cast ballots. 13.PECs interfered with the work of independent observers by depriving them of space for conducting election monitoring, refusing to provide information on the number of voters registered in voting precinct and failing to publish vote count protocols on the results of daily voting as well as the final protocol. www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______14.Senior members of PECs displayed hostility towards observers representing the “Right to Choose” campaign which manifested itself in denial of accreditation and revocation of accreditation for no good reason. 15.Vote counting process was unfair and non-transparent. Observers were deprived of the opportunity to monitor the process, the results of split tabulation of votes weren’t made public. 16.Official data on voter turnout does not correspond to reality. 17.The new composition of the House of Representatives is even more sterile than before. The experiment with the introduction of opposition MPs was deemed to be unsuccessful.

The “2019 Right to Choose” campaign conducts long-term and short- term observation of all stages of electoral campaign in the elections of deputies to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus (7th convocation) Long-term observation is conducted through the efforts of campaign secretariat and representatives of member organizations, namely, Belarusian Popular Front (BPF), the Organizing Committee of Belarusian Christian Democracy (BCD), Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Gramada) (BSDP), Movement “For Freedom”, United Civic Party (UCP), Belarusian Party “Greens”, the Organizing Committee of the Party of Freedom and Progress (PFP), Trade Union of Radio-Electronic Industry (REI).

1. Socio-political conditions in Belarus in the run-up to elections. The 2019 parliamentary election campaign is conducted ahead of schedule with the aim of avoiding overlap in time with the presidential election campaign. As a result, the term of powers of 8th convocation of the House of Representatives will be limited to three years instead of four years as prescribed by the Constitution of Belarus. A certain portion of Belarusian society expressed its dissatisfaction at this circumstance. At the same time, the reduction of the term of powers did not draw any visible reaction from www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______MPs, which once again testifies to parliament’s total dependence on the presidential vertical of power. Following on from the results of the 2016 parliamentary campaign, participating organizations developed the agreed-upon proposals for amending the Electoral Code; they made use of all the opportunities, including the mandate of MP Anna Kanopatskaya, in order to achieve the necessary changes. Legislative proposals were rejected on formal grounds by the “National Center for Legislation and Legal Research of the Republic of Belarus”. A year later, on June 12, the House of Representatives registered the draft law proposed by the opposition MP Anna Kanopatskaya “On introduction of amendments and additions to the Electoral Code of the Republic of Belarus”. However, this draft law is a worsened version of the initial legislative proposal, and, on top of that, there is every reason to believe that this was done only for the purpose of reporting to the OSCE / ODIHR, and after the end of parliamentary campaign the draft law will be put on the shelf. Therefore, unlike in previous election periods, the current election process in Belarus has not undergone any changes, including formal ones. The key proposals for amending the electoral law were as follows. 1. Formation of election commissions (Articles 34-36 of ECRB). According to the current law, territorial and lower-level election commissions shall be formed at joint meetings of the presidiums of local councils and executive committees, except for precinct commissions which shall be formed exclusively by local administrations. The current Electoral Code stipulates that, “as a rule”, representatives of political parties and other non- governmental organizations should make up no less than one third of the overall composition of the election commissions. Thanks to this statutory wording, state authorities are provided with unreasonably wide discretion. The recommendations elaborated by ODIHR and Venice Commission in 2013 concerning the absence of adequate criteria for appointing members of election commissions weren’t duly taken into account. The proposed legislative amendment provides for the inclusion of representatives of registered presidential candidates in the election www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______commissions and gives an advantage to representatives of political parties that nominated their candidates in the elections at other levels, while the remaining seats in the election commissions shall be allocated among representatives of non-governmental organizations, labor collectives and ordinary citizens by way of drawing lots. It is also proposed that duration of PECs shall be reduced from 45 to 20 days before the start of the election process, while the duration of PECs formed for holding referendum and voting on recall of people’s deputy shall remain at the level of 20 days. It is also proposed that representatives of political parties, non-governmental organizations, labor collectives and ordinary citizens who nominated their candidates to the election commission should be vested with the right to familiarize themselves with the documents on nomination of representatives to relevant commission in addition to the right to attend the meetings of bodies responsible for forming the election commissions, as prescribed by the current Electoral Code. This represents a significant step towards bringing Belarusian law in line with the country's international obligations under the ICCPR and the UN Convention against Corruption. 2. Early voting (Article 53 of ECRB). The draft amendment proposes that PEC adopts decisions on the merits of each application for early voting no earlier than 12 days before the Election Day. The reasons for early voting must be supported with documentary evidence. It is also proposed that district (territorial) election commission shall adopt a decision on the formation of one single precinct for early voting in the territory of electoral constituency. If electoral constituency comprises the territory of several districts (rayons), early voting precincts shall be formed in each district. These legislative amendments are aimed at eliminating the risk of abusive practice and electoral fraud, as well as compulsory participation in early voting. 3. Voting at the place of location of the voter (Article 54 of ECRB). It is proposed that the list of citizens voting at the place of location should include formal reasons for their inability to come to the voting precinct. This www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______legislative measure is aimed at minimizing the risk of abusive practice in the form of artificial raising of voter turnout rate and coercion of citizens to early voting. 4. Vote tabulation (Article 55 of ECRB). Vote tabulation should be performed in transparent manner, that is, under conditions where all members of PEC, observers and authorized agents of candidates are in a position to confirm the results of vote counting process. In order to increase public confidence in voting results, consideration should be given to the option of announcing the voter’s choice and demonstrating each ballot paper to all those present together with the announcement of all the data entered into PEC’s protocol. The proposed legislative amendments are aimed at ensuring transparency of vote counting process and fairness of election results as well as bringing the electoral law of the Republic of Belarus in line with international standards and commitments. All the above legislative proposals were rejected despite detailed justification, OSCE / ODIHR recommendations and references to relevant legislation of other countries. On November 7, the OSCE / ODIHR observation mission published a report that states the following: “No amendments have been introduced into Electoral Code since the previous parliamentary elections, while the most recent amendments to other laws impose new restrictions on the freedom of assembly and online media activity. Previous recommendations of ODIHR, including those relating to unbalanced representation in the election commissions, restrictions on the rights of candidates and insufficient guarantees of transparency of voting and vote counting processes, are ignored”.At a press conference held on September 12, head of the Central Election Commission Lidiya Yermoshina officially announced that ballot papers won’t be demonstrated, because this requires changes in legislation. In compensation for the lack of progress in amending the electoral law, Lidiya Yermoshina mentioned some innovations in the guidelines for election www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______commissions. However, these innovations are basically limited to a new image of the table for conducting vote tabulation with the inclusion of commission members and observers, as well as a timorous recommendation to precinct election commissions to allow observers to take photos and videos together with an advice to determine a suitable place (from the commission's perspective) for this purpose in advance. As at the beginning of parliamentary election campaign, a total of 15 political parties were registered in the Republic of Belarus. As for participants of the “Right to Choose” campaign, Belarusian Christian Democracy and the Party of Freedom and Progress are still without official party status.

2. Formation of election commissions Territorial and district election commissions are not very popular with organizations-participants of the “Right to Choose” campaign. The rights of commission members are quite limited, and great courage is required to exercise these rights in any way. Opposition parties nominated 16 candidates to the territorial election commissions, of which 3 were appointed as commission members, while organizations-participants of the “Right to Choose” campaign nominated 9 candidates, but none of them were included in territorial commissions. In particular, representative of UCP party Antonina Kovaleva (she has a law degree and work experience in the Ministry of Justice and the election commissions) gave the following description of the meeting on the formation of election commission in : “I wasn’t appointed to Minsk city election commission. They put on a show of so called “discussion” where they read out the protocol data and noted that they have no other information. I stood up and said that I am ready to answer any questions, if they don’t have enough information. Mr. Sivak (chairperson of Minsk City Executive Committee) made a gloomy remark that he knows enough about me. It was obvious that no one wanted to learn anything about me. All 22 members of the committee voted against me”. www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______Movement “For Freedom” nominated 110 candidates to district election commissions, which is similar to the number of candidates nominated by “Belaya Rus” and the Belarusian Republican Youth Union. Meanwhile, Belarusian Women’s Union nominated a somewhat smaller number of candidates. Comparative data is presented in the table below.

Name of organization Nominated Appointed as % commission member “Belaya Rus’” 110 108 98.2 Belarusian Republican Youth 110 93 84.6 Union Belarusian Women’s Union 102 101 99.0 Movement “For Freedom” 110 4 3.6

71 candidates were nominated on the basis of party lists of the “Right to Choose”campaign, of which 8 were appointed to the commissions (by comparison, 42 candidates were nominated in 2016, of which 9 were appointed as commission members).

candidates nominated by the opposition parties including those nominated by the "Right to Choose" campaign "Right to Choose" nominees appointed to the commissions

! Percentage ratio of party nominees appointed as commission members to the total number of candidates nominated by political parties is as follows: - for pro-government parties – more than 90% - for opposition parties – less than 20% (except “Fair World” party) www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______A significant number of members of district election commissions (22 persons) represent political parties that are not involved in the election process. Speaking of nomination of candidates to precinct election commissions, the Electoral Code of the Republic of Belarus (Articles 34-35) provides for three types of nominating entities: political parties and non-governmental organizations; labor collectives; ordinary citizens by way of signature collection. In total, opposition parties and non-governmental organizations nominated 495 candidates to precinct election commissions, of which 9 were appointed as PEC members. Organizations-participants of the “Right to Choose” campaign nominated 429 candidates, including 401 candidates in electoral districts where continuous monitoring is planned, of which 3 were appointed as PEC members. It should be noted that representatives of the “Right to Choose” campaign conducted 15 trainings for 260 potential members of election commissions prior to formation of PECs. All trainees received relevant certificates of training.

PEC membership structure

21589 31298

Collection of signatures Labor collectives Political parties Non-governmental organizations 6975 Total number of members 3784 - 63646 ! www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______The ratio between three indicators presented in the table below give a clear picture of different political parties.

Name of political party Candidates Candidates Candidates % of nominated to nominated to appointed as candidates the House of precinct members of appointed Representatives commissions precinct to precinct commissions commission s Belarusian Agrarian - 617 614 99.5 Party Belarusian Party 7 - - - “Greens” Belarusian Left Party 33 66 12 18.2 “Fair World” Belarusian Patriotic 16 32 32 100.0 Party Belarusian Social 41 54 - 0 Democratic Party (Gramada) Belarusian Socialist 1 649 634 97.7 Sporting Party Communist Party of 54 922 882 95.7 Belarus Liberal Democratic 107 13 8 61.5 Party United Civic Party 56 174 4 2.3 “Belarusian Social 22 - - - Democratic Gramada” Party Belarusian Popular 38 201 5 2.5 Front Republican Party 6 172 160 93.0 The Republican Party of 43 1135 1097 96.7 Labor and Justice Social Democratic Party - 344 336 97.7 of National Consent Total: 424 4379 3784 86.4 www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______At first glance, this table demonstrates the absence of any logic in the formation of precinct commissions. However, there is logic in it. Pro- government parties and civic organizations are used with the aim of forming the election commissions made-up of representatives of one single labor collective. The most shocking thing is the involvement of political parties that did not nominate any MP candidates in the process of forming PECs. Head of the opposition force United Civic Party Nikolai Kozlov provided evidence of the fact that PECs are formed with the inclusion of representatives of one (or a maximum of two) labor collectives. Despite the fact that media publications do not indicate the place of work of commission members, Mr. Kozlov managed to take photos of documents containing information about members of all PECs located in Starovilensky constituency No. 105 in the city of Minsk in the process of consideration of court appeal against the decision on the refusal to appoint representatives of UCP party . In particular, all members of PEC No. 404 are representatives of “Belavia” labor collective, the entire PEC No. 485 is made up of “Beltelecom” employees, 100% of members of PEC No. 487 are employed in the department store “GUM”.

3.Nomination and registration of MP candidates According to the Electoral Code of the Republic of Belarus (Article 60), there are three methods for nominating MP candidates: nomination by political parties, nomination by labor collectives, and nomination on the initiative of citizens through collection of signatures. Furthermore, article 69 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus states that “civic organizations, labor collectives and ordinary citizens are vested with the right to nominate MP candidates in accordance with applicable law”. Part 2 of article 10 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On regulatory legal acts of the Republic of Belarus” stipulates that the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus shall prevail in the event of conflict with provisions of other regulatory legal acts. www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______In line with this statutory provision, Movement “For Freedom” nominated 55 MP candidates at the party conference held on September 28. A total of 142 MP candidates were nominated on the basis of party lists of the “Right to Choose” campaign. Some of campaign representatives were nominated to the House of Representatives by initiative groups. The results of registration of MP candidates are as follows: None of representatives of the Movement “For Freedom” were registered as MP candidates, except for those who were nominated on the basis of party lists or through collection of signatures. Once again, state authorities have shown complete disregard for Basic Law of Belarus. As for those who were nominated on the basis of party lists, 30 candidates were denied registration mostly on the grounds of objections to declarations of income and property. The majority of non-registered candidates appealed the decisions of district election commissions to courts and oblast (Minsk city) election commissions. Those who planned to obtain registration through collection of signatures found themselves in the worst possible situation. Almost all of them were denied registration, including the leaders of Movement “For Freedom” Yury Gubarevich and Viktor Yanchurevich. None of their appeals were satisfied. As was already mentioned, the main reasons for denial of registration of MP candidates were objections to the quality of collected signatures. Moreover, the commissions that refused to register candidates as well as higher-level commissions failed to present the rejected signatures. According to the Central Election Commission, 60 appeals were filed to higher-level commissions and 14 appeals were filed to courts. Commissions satisfied one appeal, while the courts also satisfied one appeal. It is worth noting that the head of Wheelchair Association Yevgeniy Shevko was one of the lucky persons whose appeal was satisfied. It looks as though state authorities issued a special instruction in relation to Mr.Shevko’s case, since, in contrast to other cases, the court allowed him to rewrite the signatures that were recognized as invalid by the election commission and thereby prove authenticity of rejected signatures. In many cases, the appeal process looked more like a calligraphy lesson. Despite the fact that citizens confirmed the www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______validity of their signatures in the signature lists, district election commissions insisted on their non-conformity with the passport data of signatories. In particular, Elena Makarevich, who opposes the construction of battery plant in Brest, failed to convince oblast court and oblast commission of the validity of her signature sheets. 4. Pre-election campaigning and coercion of MP candidates. Legal regulation of pre-election campaigning. According to article 45 of the Electoral Code, citizens of the Republic of Belarus, political parties, other non-governmental organizations, labor collectives and authorized agents of candidates shall be provided with the right of free and comprehensive discussion of election programmes of MP candidates, their political, business and personal qualities, campaigning for or against the candidate at gatherings, meetings, in mass media and during meetings with voters. Foreign citizens have no right to take part in pre- election campaigning. Article 47 of the Electoral Code imposes restrictions of pre-election campaigning. Article 75 basically duplicates the provisions of Article 47.

Election campaign finance According to article 48/1 of the Electoral Code, MP candidates are allowed to generate election funds to finance their election campaign expenses starting from the moment of their registration as candidates. It should be noted that election funds can’t be generated at the stage of nomination of MP candidates and in the course of the work of initiative groups which results in significant reduction of statutory time limits for spending the election funds. The election campaign can be financed either by MP candidate himself or by way of donations. The maximum limit of election fund assets is 1,000 basic values. The above-mentioned procedure was introduced in 2013. Prior to that, pre- election campaigning was financed from the funds specially allocated for holding of election. The new procedure was introduced for a good reason. Under current conditions in Belarus, very few people will take the risk of transferring money to the election fund of opposition candidates. Once again, www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______this puts opposition candidates in a disadvantaged position as compared to pro-government candidates. Refusals to broadcast public speeches of candidates on TV, as prescribed by law, without giving any reasons was one of the key problems of election process. In particular, TV companies refused to broadcast public speeches of two candidates nominated by organizations-participants of the “Right to Choose” campaign — Vladimir Nepomnyashchikh (constituency No. 33) and Irina Davidovich (constituency No. 54) (they spoke on their intention to initiate the impeachment of President Lukashenko), as well as the speech of member of BPF party Mikhail Bondarenko (constituency No. 42) (he urged Aleksandr Lukashenko to step down from the presidency). MP candidate Vladimir Nepomnyashchikh, whose speech wasn’t aired on TV because it touched upon the topic of impeachment of A.Lukashenko, spoke on his plan to initiate presidential impeachment during TV debates. The reasons for refusal to broadcast candidate’s speech were deemed valid by the majority of members of the Supervisory Board for monitoring compliance with the rules and procedure for media campaigning which was formed for the duration of elections to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus (7th convocation) and is chaired by First Deputy Minister of Information P.Legkiy. This is despite the fact that candidate’s speech didn’t contain any “calls for dismantlement of the Belarusian statehood, violation of the territorial integrity of the Republic of Belarus as well as insults and slander against state officials”, as provided for by article 47 of ECRB. Later on, TV companies prohibited the broadcast the speeches of candidates nominated by UCP party — videoblogger N. Maslovsky (constituency No. 104) and the head of UCP party N. Kozlov (No. 105) as well as the speech of candidate representing the BPF party Dmitry Savich (constituency No. 46). The reasons for refusal to broadcast these speeches are same as above. Despite the prohibition imposed by TV companies, many candidates distributed the videos of their speeches and so far managed to avoid any punishment, except for candidate I.Davidovich who received a warning from district election commission. By contrast to previous election campaigns, this www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______time the employees of TV companies didn’t force the administrations of YouTube and other social media to block such videos. The majority of those opposition candidates whose speeches were aired on TV capitalized on this opportunity in a creative manner. The editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper “BelGazeta” Kirill Zhivolovich (constituency No. 94) used his five-minute speech to read out the text of Lukashenko’s election program dating back to 1994 presidential campaign instead of his own program. MP candidate and co-chairman of the organizing committee of “Belarusian Christian Democracy” party Olga Kovalkova (constituency No. 103) used her TV speech to voice opposition to the idea of integration with Russia. “We have already forgotten what it takes to be a real MP. The unprincipled yes-men from the national team of BSSR pensioners, local power brokers and escort girls certainly do not fall under that category”, - said Igor Borisov who is the head of BSDP (Gramada) nominated as MP candidate in Kolasovsky electoral district in Minsk. According to candidate I.Borisov, the next convocation of parliament “should not be made up entirely of utility service workers”. Instead, the parliament should include people “who are capable of improving the quality of life of every family”. Thematic online debates organized on the website Naviny.by were of great help to MP candidates. A total of 14 candidates participated in three rounds of online debate, including several incumbent MPs. Several printing houses refused to print the election programs of MP candidates for the purpose of publication in print media. In particular, two private printing houses in Gomel refused to print the campaign leaflets of MP candidate Vladimir Nepomnyashchikh. Presumably, it is due to the photo of candidate wearing a T-shirt with the inscription “For Belarus without Lukashenko” and the first line of candidate’s election program demanding the initiation of presidential impeachment process. A newspaper attempted to impose a ban on the phrase “change of power” contained in the election program of candidate M. Chemurako (constituency No. 30). However, following the intervention of party leadership, candidate’s election program was printed in full. www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______On November 4, Aleksandr Komar nominated as MP candidate (No.78) in the city of Bobruisk received a letter from printing house which informed him of its refusal to print his campaign leaflets for the reason that printing equipment suddenly went out of order. On the same day, member of district election commission got in touch with A. Komar and advised him to change the wording of one of the paragraphs of his election program, otherwise his election program won’t be published in the local newspaper. In the end, candidate’s election program was published with cuttings. Newspaper “Zvyazda” refused to publish the election program of MP candidate Diana Chernushina (No. 101) under the title “25 Questions to Aleksandr Lukashenko”, while newspaper “Vecherniy Minsk” refused to publish the election program of candidate Nikolai Kozlov. The photo and biographical information included in the general poster of MP candidate and leader of UCP party N.Kozlov were edited in an arbitrary fashion. As a result, candidate’s date and place of birth as well as information about candidate’s military service in the territory of Belarus was missing from the published version of general poster so that one could get an impression that he is a Russian military officer. The biographical information of Vadim Saranchukov nominated as MP candidate by BPF party in constituency No. 51 was also edited in the process of publication. It should be noted that the information submitted by candidates for the purpose of publication on general posters (as provided for by Electoral Code) was edited and large blocks of text were deleted in election commission’s (or someone else’s) sole discretion. Campaign rallies and pickets on various topics are actively used by candidates: the current economic situation in Belarus, the absence of fair and free elections, the prospects for future presidential campaign. On the evening of November 8, opposition candidates held collective pickets at Freedom Square in the center of Minsk as well as a meeting with voters who were invited by Telegram channel “”. By various estimates, these events were attended by 500-1,500 citizens. A new trend of the election campaign was the holding of joint pickets by MP candidates representing the center- right coalition. Such pickets were held in Gomel and Minsk. The subject www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______matter of pickets and visual materials used in pickets often gave occasion to issuing warnings, as was the case with candidates Olga Damaskina (constituency No. 24) and Olga Belevtsova (constituency No. 77) Election commissions continued the malpractice of issuing warnings and canceling the registration of MP candidates. According to CEC, as of November 6, there were 523 registered candidates for deputies to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus (7th convocation). 29 candidates withdrew from election on their own initiative. However, it should be noted that “on their own initiative” is an elastic term. Some of the candidates were put under pressure and forced to withdraw from election. 10 candidates were deprived of registration for allegedly breaking the law. Only two candidates managed to restore registration, apparently, by mistake. Among those deprived of registration is the last representative of opposition to construction of battery plant – member of UCP party Vladimir Moroz (constituency No. 4). He was removed from elections on the eve of large-scale campaign rally scheduled for November 3. Representative of BCD party Dmitry Kazakevich (constituency No. 94) as well as MP candidates nominated by BPF party Arseniy Chigir (constituency No. 79), Oksana Yushkevich (constituency No. 96), Pavel Yukhnevich (constituency No. 103), Olga Nikolaichik (constituency No. 109), Artem Chernyak (constituency No. 110) were also removed from elections. On the main Election Day, the number of registered MP candidates decreased to 513, while the number of candidates removed from parliamentary election increased to 15. It is obvious that opposition candidates are on unequal terms with pro- government candidates. The authorities exert all kinds of pressure and cast discredit on the opposition candidates. For example, in the midst of the election campaign the authorities suddenly raised concerns about the state of health of MP candidate Irina Davidovich and ordered her to undergo urgent medical examination, as well as threatened to send notification to her employer. Unknown persons distributed fake leaflets on behalf of candidate N. Maslovsky. “Concerned citizens” immediately filed a complaint and N.Maslovsky was summoned to the meeting of district election commission. At the same time, district commission took no interest in the information www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______provided by N.Maslovsky concerning campaign leaflets without source data distributed in support of candidates M. Vasilevich and G. Nasevich, which is a gross violation of electoral law. Likewise, the election commission ignored the fact of incorrect indication of the place of employment of candidate A. Savinykh (constituency No. 96), while refusing to register and imposing sanctions on the opposition candidates for less significant violations. MP candidate Vladimir Katsora (constituency No. 33) fell victim to media misrepresentation of information about his income level. Subsequently, the source of misinformation – state-owned newspaper – corrected the mistake, but by that time false information has already been widely distributed through the Internet. On October 27, police officers in the city of Mogilev collected passport data of participants of the opposition picket, which is nothing more than an attempt to intimidate them. Police officers thwarted the work of journalists of German television company ARD, who planned to provide coverage of campaign event at Freedom Square in Minsk which was scheduled for November 8. Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) stated that “this was the first serious incident involving the detention of journalists during the election campaign”. According to German journalist Damian von Osten, who was officially accredited by the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, police officers initially ordered journalists to leave Freedom Square and then detained them together with their vehicle, their driver and television equipment. Later on, journalists were released, but the driver, vehicle and TV equipment remained in detention in the central police department for two and a half hours, as reported by BelaPAN. Two unknown persons broke sound-amplifying equipment at the collective picket held on November 8. Dozens of those present at the event were witnesses to this malicious act of hooliganism; the incident was recorded on video, but no measures were taken by law enforcement agencies, and no criminal proceedings were initiated. Opposition candidates plan to appeal against police inaction to the prosecutor’s office. www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______In contrast to absolutely forgettable campaigning activity conducted by the bulk of pro-government candidates, there were some candidates who made noticeable efforts to introduce modern motives into their campaigns (for example, music video clip created by Igor Marzalyuk). And it doesn’t really matter that the content of video clip is at variance with real- life activities of MP Marzalyuk. At the meeting with voters, the incumbent member of the House of Representatives Igor Marzalyuk, who is running in current parliamentary election (constituency No. 84), voiced the idea of conducting a referendum on amending the Constitution with the aim of reallocation of authorities, introduction of proportional representation voting system and reform of the administrative-territorial division of Belarus. It is unclear whether he was authorized to make such statements. Another new trend of the current parliamentary elections is the creation of social media accounts by pro-government candidates. Their election campaigns used to be limited to TV appearances and publications in newspapers. As a rule, pro-government candidates avoided live conversation with voters, except for specially organized indoor meetings. Now they are breaking this rule. Some candidates, namely Andrei Savinykh and Valery Voronetsky (constituency No. 94), managed to organize quite lively conversation with social media users. It is becoming more and more difficult to gather voters for indoor meetings, as can be seen from the photo posted by A. Savinykh on Facebook. 5. Training of observers. Training of observers began immediately after registration of MP candidates. A total of 79 training sessions were conducted and 930 observers have successfully undergone training. Based on the results of trainings, it was determined that continuous monitoring will be conducted over a period of 6 days in 319 voting precincts located in the territory of 9 electoral constituencies (8.2% of the total number of constituencies). Of these nine constituencies, two are located in Minsk, another two – in Mogilev, and one in each of the following cities: Brest, Vitebsk, Gomel, Grodno and Bobruisk. www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______No less than two observers will be accredited at each voting precinct. 32 closed voting precincts1 will be monitored on the main Election Day. According to the CEC, state authorities are also actively preparing for election observation. As of November 17, a total of 38,878 observers were accredited by election commissions at all levels or an average of more than 6 observers per voting precinct. The main task of all these observers is to write thank-you letters to relevant commissions and testify against independent observers in the prosecutor's office.

DATA

On observers accredited by election commissions (As of November 17, 2019)

Number of observers accredited by election commissions Entities that nominated their lists of observers Cent ral Elec tion Territor com ial District Precinct missi commis commissi commissio on sions ons ns Tot al

Citizens by way of filing applications 10 59 2 968 3 037 Labor collectives 4 1 995 1 999 Political parties: 4 5 64 3 000 3 073 Belarusian Agrarian Party 210 210 Belarusian Party “Greens” 8 8

1 Closed voting precincts are formed in the territory of sanatoriums, preventoriums, rest houses, hospitals and other healthcare organizations providing in-patient medical assistance where early voting is not conducted. Belarusian Left Party “Fair World” 1 3 119 123 Belarusian Patriotic Party 56 56 Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Gramada) 60 60 The Belarusian Socialist Sporting Party 220 220 The Communist Party of Belarus 1 2 48 1 113 1 164 Conservative Christian Party – BPF 13 13 Liberal Democratic Party 1 2 158 161 United Civic Party 4 225 229 “Belarusian Social Democratic Gramada” Party 2 2 Belarusian Popular Front 1 1 1 149 152 Republican Party 10 10 The Republican Party of Labor and Justice 1 6 645 652 Social Democratic Party of National Consent 1 12 13 Other non-governmental organizations: 5 32 655 30 077 30 769 Belaya Rus’ 1 6 113 4 582 4 702 Belarusian Republican Youth Union 1 7 111 5 883 6 002 Belarusian Women’s Union 1 2 85 3 208 3 296 Belarusian Peace Fund 1 41 1 366 1 408 Belarusian Helsinki Committee 1 4 37 109 151 Belarusian Public Association of Veterans 2 80 3 907 3 989 BPF “Adradzhenne” (Revival) 127 127 46 46 Movement “For Freedom” 1 73 74 Trade unions 7 123 8 601 8 731 Other public associations 3 65 2 175 2 243 TOTAL 9 47 782 38 040 38 878 www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______6. Election to Council of the Republic of Belarus. On November 7, a total of 56 members of the Council of the Republic of Belarus (7th convocation) were elected at the meetings of deputies of local councils at grassroots level. Elections were held on a non-alternative basis. Each of the six oblasts and the city of Minsk nominated eight candidates to the Council of the Republic. It is interesting that all the newly elected members hold leadership positions at oblast or rayon level. You won’t find a single engineer, teacher or doctor among them. Eight members shall be appointed by A.Lukashenko. 7. Participation of youth and other non-party activists in the election process. Another new trend of the current parliamentary campaign is the emergence of MP candidates representing informal organization "Youth Bloc" and the movement of mothers for mitigating punishment provided by article 328 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus (drug trafficking). Given the negative experience of those who tried to obtain registration by way of collecting signatures, this group of candidates took advantage of nomination on the basis of party lists. Mothers were nominated by United Civic Party, and young people were nominated by Belarusian Social Democratic Gramada. “Youth Bloc” consists of activists who launched several initiatives, in particular #educationismoreimportant (opposes the law on the abolition of draft deferment), “Zadzinochannya Belaruskikh Studentov” (informal student organization) and “Legalize Belarus” (the initiative for decriminalizing and mitigating punishment under the anti-drug articles of the Criminal Code). Eight activists of the Youth Bloc were nominated as MP candidates by the “Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada” party: Alana Gebremariam - in constituency No.98, Danila Lavretsky - in constituency No. 95, Yevgeniy Karaulov - in constituency No.105, Nikita Krasnokutsky - in constituency No. 110 , Alexey Lazarev – in constituency No.108, Stanislav Shashok - in constituency No. 99 (all located in Minsk), Mikhail Vorontsov - in constituency No.85 (Mogilev), Vladislav Sysa - in constituency No.3 (Brest). www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______The registration of latter candidate was canceled by the Central Election Commission for the reason that V.Sysa was a student of Polish university and did not permanently reside in the territory of the Republic of Belarus. MP candidates representing informal organization “Youth Bloc” proposed draft laws on military draft deferment, abolition of job by distribution and decriminalization of small amounts of drug substances. 8. Early voting Legal regulation of early voting process. Early voting is regulated by article 53 of the Electoral Code of the Republic of Belarus. Voter or participant in the referendum who has no opportunity to be present at the place of his residence on the day of election or referendum is eligible, not earlier than five days before the Election Day or the referendum and under conditions excluding the possibility of control over expression of his will, to mark the ballot paper at the premises of precinct election commission and put it in a separate sealed ballot box intended for voters and participants in the referendum who will be absent on the day of holding of elections or referendum at the place of their residence. Official confirmation of the reasons of voter’s inability to come to the voting precinct on the day of election or referendum is not required.

Early voting shall be carried out from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. and from 4 p.m. till 7 p.m. in the presence of at least two members of the precinct election commission. The ballot boxes shall be sealed up on the first day of early voting.

At the end of each voting day during the entire period of early voting process, the chairperson or deputy chairperson of the precinct election commission shall seal the slot on the top of ballot box with a sheet of paper. The chairperson or deputy chairperson and one of the members of the precinct commission shall put their signatures on this sheet of paper. The chairperson or deputy chairperson of the precinct commission shall remove the seal covering the slot of ballot box before the start of early voting on a daily basis. Domestic observers, foreign (international) observers and representatives of mass media have the right to attend the sealing and removal of the seal from the slot of ballot box. Chairperson of the precinct commission shall be responsible for ensuring proper storage of the ballot box. www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______During the entire period of early voting, the chairperson and deputy chairperson of the precinct commission shall draw up a protocol indicating the number of ballot papers received by precinct commission, the number of ballot papers issued to citizens for voting purposes (on the last day of early voting – total number of ballot papers issued to citizens over the whole period of early voting), the number of spoiled ballot papers and the number of unused ballot papers. The protocol shall be signed by the chairperson or deputy chairperson and one of the members of the precinct commission. A copy of the protocol shall be placed in open view at the premises of the precinct commission. Upon receipt of ballot paper, the voter shall put a personal handwritten signature on the list of citizens eligible to participate in the elections together with an indication of the date of early voting. Main violations committed in the course of early voting. Before the start of early voting, observers representing the “Right to Choose” campaign had to obtain accreditation and submit a written proposal for an open and transparent vote counting process2. However, observers were faced with a number of difficulties as early as the stage of accreditation. In particular, three observers were denied accreditation. The election commission in precinct No.51/383 demonstrated total ignorance of the law by refusing to accredit an observer on the grounds of absence UCP party’s stamp on the assignment document. Several observers weren’t accredited in a timely manner due to the fact that voting precincts were closed during working hours. This refers to precincts No. 3/12, No. 3/37, No. 51/38, No. 84/5, No. 3/21.

Apparently, independent observers are regarded as the main source of evil by the Central Election Commission that persistently ignores them on an ongoing basis. According to official data from the CEC as of November 15th, among all the accredited observers only 4 represent the BPF party and 5 are representatives of UCP. Other parties have no accredited observers. The number of observers who were deprived of accreditation remains stable. This time around, 21 observers were stripped of their accreditations during the

2 Open and transparent vote counting procedure means that one of the members of the precinct commission demonstrates each ballot paper to all other members of the commission and to each observer so that all of them could see the result of expression of the will of a voter for themselves.

3 Hereinafter the number before the slash denotes the constituency No. and the number after the slash denotes the voting precinct No. www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______period of early voting, including 3 observers in constituency No. 107. In 2016, a total of 23 observers were deprived of accreditation.

As for the written proposals submitted by observers, the election commission in precinct No. 106/545 simply refused to accept and register a written proposal in violation of the law, while the election commission in precinct No. 106/516 claimed that determination of the format of vote counting process does not fall within its competence.

One of the main tasks of the “Right to Choose” campaign’s observers assigned to voting precincts was to measure the voter turnout. According to our instructions, counting of voters should have been carried out at the moment of putting the ballot paper in the ballot box. Throughout the entire early voting process, observers witnessed the appearance of collectives of voters at the premises of voting precincts. Primarily, those were collectives of students, trainees and employees living in dormitories. Speaking on condition of anonymity, they informed observers that they were forced to come to precincts and take part in early voting. Some of the facts of compulsory early voting have become widely known thanks to publications on the Internet (see: https://youtu.be/B5BSh0ry9yo). Similar facts regarding compulsory voting by students of Belarusian National Technical University were made public by telegram channel “Vybory.Belarus” (“Elections.Belarus.”). Students in Grodno were coerced into early voting under the threat of being allocated to Ostrovets or Turkmen student groups. On November 14, head of the Central Election Commission Lidiya Yermoshina made the following comment on the information about facts of coercion of students to early voting: it’s just another part of “pre-election campaigning aimed at stimulating participation in the elections. The upbringing of infantile young people and turning them into real, responsible citizens”. Presumably, the next step in the process of such upbringing should be the introduction of administrative or criminal liability for absenteeism. Prime Minister of Belarus Sergey Rumas and his wife Zhanna provided inspiration for “infantile youth” by personal example and took part in early voting on November 16. Head of the CEC Lidiya Yermoshina followed their example.

Overall, the level of turnout in voting precincts is obviously a matter of great concern to state authorities. According to Article 82 of ECRB, “the elections shall be declared valid if more than half of the total number of voters in www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______electoral constituency included on the register of citizens eligible to vote cast ballots in the elections”. Therefore, whenever possible, citizens were coerced into early voting. In the case of impossibility to do that, state authorities resorted to ballot box stuffing and direct falsification of voter turnout figures. Observer representing the “Right to Choose” campaign Yury Voshchenchuk (precinct No. 3/37) recorded a video of attempted ballot box stuffing (as a result, he was deprived of accreditation), (see: https://youtu.be/Shf_tpnz5Dg). Manipulation with number of citizens on the list of voters also served this purpose. Although in the majority of voting precincts monitored by observers the difference between the numbers of citizens included on voters’ register on the first and last day of early voting varied from zero to one or two dozen, there were some precincts where such difference amounted to several hundred voters. Discrepancy between turnout figures recorded by precinct commissions and observers continues to increase. In particular, the difference between turnout figures recorded by observers and PECs in 15 precincts located in constituencies No.33 (Gomel), No.84, No.85 (Mogilev) and No.103 (Minsk) is more than 500 (!) voters. General information about voter turnout rates covering a 5-day period of early voting in constituencies monitored by the “Right to Choose” campaign are shown in the diagram below:

According to observers According to commissions

! According to the CEC, 35.77% of the total number of registered voters came to voting precincts over the whole period of early voting. www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______Comparative data on voter turnout in early voting %

%

! Thanks to the fact that electoral law of Belarus does not impose any restrictions on pre-election campaigning during early voting, in recent days the opposition candidates were able to conduct a series of high-profile campaigning events that drew quite harsh reaction from state authorities. On November 15, eight opposition candidates conducted a campaign rally at the square near “Euroopt” hypermarket in Gomel. The campaign rally (picket) lasted four hours - from 4 p.m. till 8 p.m. The attendance of campaign rally reached a peak of 300 people at around 5 p.m. Bloggers representing “A Country for Life” and “BrainON” channels acted as moderators of the event. Among those attending the campaign rally were Gomel candidates Tatiana Kanyevskaya, Vladimir Nyepomnyashchiy, Yulia Ganisyevskaya, Elena Davydova and Vasily Romanov as well as candidate from Zhlobin Galina Kayan, candidate from Rechitsa Tatiana Lasitsa and candidate from Svetlogorsk Andrey Smolenchuk. Candidate-farmer Yury Gantsevich also planned to attend the event, but he was detained by the traffic police – he attempted to bring sound-amplifying equipment and a goat on a tractor. Authorized agents of MP candidate Elena Davydova tried to liberate the farmer, but they were also detained by the police and, according to Elena Davydova, were beaten by police officers. Street lighting was turned off throughout the neighborhood at the time of holding the picket. As a result, the event was illuminated with car headlights. More than a hundred people gathered on Freedom Square in Minsk to attend the event “Meeting of Free People” organized by opposition candidates within the framework of “European Belarus” campaign. At the same time (from 6 p.m. till 8 p.m.), www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______candidates representing the “Youth Bloc” held their own campaign event on Zybitskaya street in Minsk. The event was conducted in an “open microphone” format and accompanied by music band performance. Another example of campaign event was the collection of signatures under the petition in support of resignation of Lidiya Yermoshina, which was published on change.org website by MP candidate Anna Kanius representing the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Gramada). The campaign on collection of signatures began on November 15. The malpractice of cancelling the registration of opposition candidates has continued. In particular, on November 12, the registration of candidate Olga Belevtsova in Zaslavsky constituency No.77 was canceled on the grounds of three violation reports filed by “concerned citizens” who complained about violations committed by candidate during meetings with voters. On November 15, candidate representing UCP party Aleksandr Komar was deprived of registration in electoral constituency No.78 on the grounds of “improper activities” of candidate’s agents. In Gomel, MP candidate Vladimir Katsora, who is a member of UCP party and an activist of “For Freedom” Movement, withdrew from candidacy in protest against unfair elections. In total, 15 candidates were deprived of registration during the period from October 18 to November 16, while 34 candidates withdrew from election on their own initiative. Observers representing the “Right to Choose” campaign recorded a total of 461 violations of electoral procedure and filed 281 violation complaints with precinct and district election commissions during the 5-day period of early voting. In addition to the above-mentioned, observers also recorded several other types of violations. From the very beginning of early voting process, observers have been recording numerous cases of unsafe storage of ballot boxes in different constituencies. In particular, ballot boxes were kept in unsealed rooms not only during the daytime, but also at night. However, safety of ballot boxes wasn’t guaranteed even if they were kept in sealed premises. In particular, on the evening of November 12, observer Sergey Veremeyenko (constituency No. 51/11) took a photo of state flag which was hung upside down. Imagine his surprise on the following morning when the www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______seal was removed and he found the same flag hanging in proper manner. Observer filed a complaint about unauthorized entry to the sealed room. In some cases, vote count protocols on the results of daily voting were published in an untimely manner or weren’t published at all. Some chairpersons of PECs refused to provide the necessary information upon the request of observers in violation of the law. Observers also recorded cases of placement (or attempted placement) of campaign materials at the premises of voting precincts as well as cases of absence of chairperson (deputy chairperson) of the commission during the sealing of ballot boxes. Two members of the commission in precinct No. 419 in Minsk and an observer representing the trade union proposed their own interpretation of Electoral Code. They removed their names from the list of voters in the precinct located at their place of residence and decided to cast ballots at the place of their actual location on the grounds of absentee voting certificate. They ignored the fact that absentee voting procedure is not provided for by the current law of Belarus.

9. Voting and vote tabulation on the main Election Day

Legal regulation (Article 52 and Article 54 of ECRB) Voting at the premises of voting precinct shall begin at 8 a.m. and finish at 8 p.m. Every voter shall vote in person, voting in place of other persons is prohibited. The ballot paper shall be issued to voter by a member of precinct commission on the basis of the list of citizens having the right to participate in elections after presentation of valid passport of citizen of the Republic of Belarus or other document as determined by the Central Election Commission. When receiving the ballot paper the voter shall put a signature in the relevant line of the aforesaid list. The voter shall put the filled out (marked) ballot paper into the ballot box. If the voter feels that he made a mistake when filling out the ballot paper, he is entitled to address the member of the precinct commission who issued the ballot paper with a request to provide him with a new ballot paper instead of the spoiled one. After receiving the spoiled ballot paper which should contain voter’s handwritten signature, member of the precinct commission shall issue a new ballot paper to voter and make a note of this fact in the list of citizens www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______having the right to participate in elections opposite the name of voter who spoiled the ballot paper. Precinct commission is obliged to provide an opportunity to vote outside the premises of voting precinct for those voters who are unable to come to voting premises on the election day for health reasons or any other valid reasons. For these purposes, the precinct commission shall have no more than three portable ballot boxes. Upon voter’s request expressed in written or verbal form, the precinct commission shall assign no less than two members of the commission to organize voting process on the election day at the place of location of such voters according to the procedure as follows: verbal and written requests submitted by voters for organizing the voting process at the place of their location on the election day shall be entered into a special list signed by the chairperson or the secretary of the precinct commission together with an indication of data about these voters which was provided in the list of citizens having the right to participate in the elections. The official confirmation of validity of the reasons for voter’s inability to come to the premises of voting precinct is not required. Voters may file a request for organizing the voting at the place of their location on the election day at any time after formation of the precinct commission, but no later than two hours prior to termination of voting process on the election day; Members of the precinct commission shall receive ballot papers and sign a written acknowledgement of receipt of ballot papers. The number of issued ballot papers must correspond to the number of requests received from voters; For the purpose of organizing the voting process at the place of location of voters, chairperson or the secretary of precinct commission shall indicate all the data about such voters in a separate supplementary sheet and put a handwritten signature on it. Voters who cast ballots at the place of their location shall also put a handwritten signature on this supplementary sheet when receiving the ballot papers. After that, commission members make a note of the fact of voting at the place of location in the main list of citizens having the right to participate in elections and referendum. Supplementary sheets indicating the names of voters who voted at the place of their location shall be kept together with the main list of citizens having right to participate in the elections. Voting at the place of location of voters shall be carried out in compliance with the requirements of current Electoral Code. www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______Results and main violations

On the main Election Day, monitoring was conducted in 9 constituencies and 351 voting precincts (8.2% of the total number of constituencies). 32 closed voting precincts were additionally monitored. Voting process in closed precincts was carried out in one day.

Commissions continued the malpractice of expelling observers from voting precincts, often without any explanation (constituency No.78/11), or for the reason of removal of MP candidate from election (constituency No.78/2), or on the grounds of complaints filed by pro-government observers about alleged video filming of voting process (constituency No.106/533). Mass- scale expulsion of observers was carried out in constituency No.78. A total of 35 observers were expelled from voting premises mostly due to allegedly improper execution of protocols on assignment to voting precinct. It is surprising that commission members managed to figure this out only on the last day of voting.

In some cases, observers were unable to monitor the voting process (constituencies No.33/39, No.85/64) despite the fact that the territory of voting precincts was much larger than during early voting. In precinct No.64 located in the territory of constituency No. 85 (medical facility), observer was not allowed to enter the hospital rooms together with the commission members. A total of 97 observers were expelled from voting precincts over the whole period of observation.

Unrealistically large number of citizens voted at home in many precincts. In 9 precincts, there were more than 300 elderly and disabled people who voted at home, while in precinct No.55 located in constituency No. 85 a total of 511 citizens voted at the place of their location. Precincts of constituency No. 103 are the only ones where no more than 45 persons voted at the place of location. In all constituencies, observers recorded inconsistency between the time taken to travel to home voters and the number of filled out ballot papers that were brought back. In precinct No. 51/32, 43 ballot papers were filled out by home voters in a matter of 2 hours, in precinct No. 51/16 – 53 ballot papers filled out in a matter of one hour, in precinct No. 78/2 – 136 ballot papers filled out in a matter of 2 hours and 15 minutes. www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______According to observers, open and transparent vote tabulation was conducted in 41 precincts. But unfortunately, this information cannot be trusted, because the observers assigned to these precincts didn’t send any photo or video materials contrary to the requirements of the “Right to Choose” campaign. In many precincts, the final protocol was not published by the election commission. In precincts No. 106/531, No. 106/535 and No. 106/559, commission members didn’t announce the results of counting of votes from some of the ballot boxes. Obviously, this was done in accordance with the instructions received from district commission. Observers were kept 7-10 meters away from the vote counting table (voting precinct No. 3/10), while in precinct No.106/546, observers were deprived of accreditation “for violating the boundaries of voting precinct”. On the last day of voting, observers filed 341 complaints about violations of electoral law, and a total of 622 complaints over the period of 6 days. www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______Summarized data on distribution of violation by type

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o Denial of accreditation of observer – 3 cases (0.40%) o Revocation of observer’s accreditation (expelled from the premises of polling station) – 62 cases (8.19%) o Commission refused to provide information upon the request of observer – 39 cases (5.15%) o Impossibility of conducting observation – 24 cases (3.17%) o Coercion of voters to participate in early voting (compulsory voting) – 7 cases (0.92%) o Chairman of precinct commission failed to ensure proper conditions of storage of ballot box intended for early voting – 199 cases (26.29%) www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______o Failure to publish a copy of vote count protocol in due time – 6 cases (0.79%) o Violation of the procedure for voting at the place of location of the voter – 17 cases (2.25%) o Discrepancy between turnout figures indicated in vote count protocol of precinct commission and the number of early voters recorded by observer – 290 cases (38.31%) o Other violations – 110 cases (14.53%)

According to the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Belarus, 77.36% of the total number of registered voters took part in elections during the entire period of voting. The highest turnout rate was recorded in Mogilev oblast, the smallest turnout – in Minsk. It is interesting that 44 female candidates were elected to the new convocation of the House of Representatives, or 40% of the total number of MPs . 30 candidates were elected to parliament for the second time. According to the CEC, voter turnout rate varied between 63.16% in Minsk and 82.52% in Mogilev oblast, while observers recognized elections as valid only in one constituency - Grodno-Tsentralny constituency No. 51.

According to observers representing the “Right to Choose” campaign that conducted parallel vote tabulation in nine constituencies, the voter turnout failed to clear the 50% threshold required for recognizing the elections as valid in seven out of eight constituencies where observers managed to obtain complete data (see table below). www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______

Tot al number of citizens Overall who took turnout part in rates in Gross early early differen voting voting ce according accordin betwee to g to n the observer, observer total at the ’s data, number Tot al premises at the s of number of voting premises voters of precinct of voting who Gross citizens according precinct took differe who Final to accordin part in nce took voter observer’s g to three betwee part in turno data, and observer types of n three ut at the , and at voting turnout types of rates place of the accordin rates Numbe voting accor location place of g to recorde r of accordin ding of voter location observe d by registe g to to according of voter r and observe red commiss com to accordin commiss r and voters ion missi commissio g to ion commis Name and No. of on the protocol on n protocol commissi protocol sion Constituency list data (%) data (!)* on (!)* data (%) No.3 Brest- 60093 34210 56.9 26870 44.7 7340 12.2 Vostochny No.18 Vitebsk- 69863 42546 60.9 32454 46.5 10092 14.4 Chkalovsky No. 33 Gomel- 66145 42996 65 23173 35 19823 30 Tsentralny** No. 51 Grodno- 50799 28601 56.3 26229 51.6 2372 4.7 Tsentralny*** No. 84 Mogilev- 65129 49682 76.3 26763 41.1 22919 35.2 Leninsky No. 85 Mogilev- 61900 44728 72.3 27704 44.8 17024 27.5 Tsentralny No. 103 Pushkinsky 60913 37624 61.8 26750 43.9 10874 17.9 No. 106 Kolasovsky 62448 40078 64.2 26655 42.7 13423 21.5

* Overall voter turnout according to observers includes the turnout rates at the location of voters based on commission protocol data collected in all constituencies. Given the observers' remarks on the time spent on travelling to www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______* home voters (see information above), these figures are likely to be overstated. ** In Gomel-Tsentralny constituency No. 33, turnout rate was calculated exclusively of precinct No. 9, where the observers failed to obtain the final protocol. *** In Grodno- Tsentralny constituency No. 51, overall voter turnout was calculated exclusively of precincts No. 23 and No. 35, where observers failed to obtain the final protocols. www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______Voter turnout for the entire period of voting with a breakdown by election constituency. (Overall voter turnout rates based on observers’ data include turnout rates at the place of location of voters according to commission protocol data collected in all constituencies)

!

! In Bobruisk-Leninsky constituency observers failed to obtain the final protocols in several precincts due to mass-scale removal of observers from voting premises.

Observers noted a widespread phenomenon when the number of citizens that took part in early voting was twice the amount of citizens voting on the main Election Day. In particular, in precinct No. 20 (Sennensky constituency in Vitebsk oblast), according to the final protocol, 394 citizens took part in early voting according to the final protocol data, 84 persons voted at home, and only 193 voters came to voting precincts on the main Election Day. In absolute terms, the difference between the data collected by observers and final protocol data ranged from 2372 voters in Grodno to 22919 voters in Mogilev-Leninsky constituency. The diagram below strongly suggests that the higher the required rate of voter turnout, the larger the scale of electoral fraud. www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______Correlation between voter turnout rates according to commission data and the difference from turnout rates based on observer data

Voter turnout according to commission data Data discrepancy in %

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Here is another diagram that gives clear evidence of electoral fraud in constituency No.85. The data collected by observers varies greatly from one precinct to another, while the commission data is very straightforward: if you need a certain result, then it does not matter how you achieve it.

! www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______

Data from constituency No. 103 paints a similar picture, only that the target for turnout is lower – 60% instead of 70%. As a result, it wasn’t necessary to resort to mass voting at home.

!

Due to mass-scale falsification of election results, candidates representing the “Right to Choose” campaign appealed the election results to the prosecutor’s office. In constituency No.107, observers representing the Movement “For Freedom” filed 12 police reports on criminal offenses - falsification of election results.

10. Recommendations of the “Right to Choose” campaign

Following on from the results of observation of 2019 parliamentary elections, the “Right to Choose” campaign calls on the legislative and executive authorities to change the political situation and the rules for holding elections in Belarus. For this purpose, it is necessary to implement the following measures:

1. Register “Belarusian Christian Democracy”, the “Party of Freedom and Progress”, the organizing committees of human rights and public- awareness Movement “For Freedom” and other political parties, as well as legally www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______2. permit the registration of the organizing committees of political parties and non-governmental organizations located in residential premises that are owned by their members. 3. Discontinue the practice of political persecution of democratic information resources and independent online media, revoke the amendments to the law on mass media. 4. Change the procedure for forming the election commissions at all levels by guaranteeing the right of meaningful representation in these commissions for citizens and organizations participating in the election process. Impose a legal prohibition on participation of representatives of executive authorities in the election commissions. Give priority to political parties in the formation of election commissions. 5. Develop unified and convenient-for-public criteria for determination of places prohibited for collection of signatures by initiative groups. Give permission to start pre-election campaigning from the date of registration of the initiative group. 6. Create a single national public register of voters that would rule out the possibility of manipulation with the voters’ lists in voting precincts. 7. Abolish the institute of early voting or reduce it to a minimum. The requirement to provide documentary proof of inability to come to voting precinct on the Election Day should be enshrined in legislation. In the case of preservation of early voting in one form or another, it is necessary to specify the procedure for storing the ballot boxes during the period of early voting. 8. Introduce a written form of application for voting at the place of location of the voter. 9. Create conditions for unbiased and efficient judicial control over the electoral process, including control on consideration of appeals against unlawful acts of election commissions and local executive authorities insofar as they relate to formation of election commissions, refusals to register the initiative groups and MP candidates. 10. Discontinue the practice of coercion of MP candidates and their authorized agents as well as exclude the possibility of frivolous arrests and detention during the period of election campaign. Put a moratorium on administrative prosecution and punishment of MP candidates and their agents for the duration of election campaign. 11. At this stage, we deem it necessary to introduce partial state funding of MP candidate’s election campaign. MP candidates should be allowed to set up electoral funds from the date of registration of initiative groups. Local authorities should be obliged to inform voters about registered electoral funds with the use of local media and official websites. www.pvby.org RIGHT TO CHOOSE-2019 CAMPAIGN ______12. Methodological guidelines should specify the procedure for counting votes, including the sorting of ballot papers by one of the members of the commission in a manner that ensures visibility of the content of each ballot paper to each observer and each member of the commission. 13. Expand observers’ rights, including by way of providing them with a real opportunity to monitor the process of safeguarding of ballot papers and ballot boxes. Observers should be vested with the right to take photos, videos as well as live stream the process of voting and vote tabulation at the premises of voting precinct. 14. Prohibit the practice of expelling observers from the premises of voting precincts on the grounds of obstruction of voting and vote tabulation processes. Observer can be expelled only after revocation of his accreditation.

The Right to Choose 2019 Campaign unites eight political and civil structures: the Belarusian Popular Front Party (BPF), the Belarusian Christian Democracy (BCD), the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Gramada) (BSDP), the Movement For Freedom, the United Civil Party (UCP), the Belarusian Green Party, the Organizing Committee of the Party of Freedom and Progress (PFP), the Labour Union Organization of Radio and Electronic Industry (REI). The main objective of the campaign is to protect the real expression of the will of citizens by preventing violations of the law at all stages of the election campaign, to keep records of irregularities and promptly response to violations of the law.