INTERIM REPORT No. 2
31 August – 13 September 2008
The election campaign officially commenced following the registration of candidates (concluded on 28 August) and is unfolding in a strictly regulated environment. This applies specifically to media coverage, to the printing and distribution of campaign materials, the venues for meetings with the voters and the financing of campaigns. OSCE/ODIHR EOM observers continue to report that the campaign is being conducted in an extremely low key manner throughout Belarus, and few candidate meetings have taken place thus far. Locations for posting campaign materials have been allocated and locations where candidates can meet with voters have been designated by DECs.
Ambassador Benedikt Haller, the Head of the OSCE Office in Minsk, and Major-General Andrej Garulka, the First Deputy Chairman of the State Border Committee of Belarus (SBC), signed a memorandum of understanding on implementing a new border security and management initiative in Minsk.
The amendments to the Belarusian election code provide a mixed response to the recommendations made by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Council of Europe's Venice Commission, the two institutions concluded in a joint legal opinion adopted today. The amendments introduced in January represent a step towards removing some flaws in the country's election legislation, but they are unlikely to resolve the underlying concern that the legislative framework for elections in Belarus continues to fall short of providing a basis for genuinely democratic elections, the document says.
The OSCE published a commentary to Alyaxandr Lukashenka's decree of № 60 on the regulation of the Internet. The commentary was prepared by Andrei Richter, director of the Moscow Media Law and Policy Institute. According to the document, the decree of Belarusian leader is "half-hearted".
Having analyzed the Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus No. 60 “On Measures to improve the Use of the National Segment of the Internet” of 1 February 2010 in the context of the Constitution and current legislation of the Republic of Belarus, as well as of international regulations on freedom of information and the Internet, the expert commissioned by the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media has come to the following conclusions.
The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatovic, today expressed concern about recent reports of pressure against independent media in Belarus. She also expressed disappointment that Internet legislation was adopted without public consultation, and offered the assistance of her Office to review the new bylaws.
A seminar on conducting trans-boundary impact assessments focusing on the Neman River, organized by the OSCE Office in Minsk and Belarus's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, opened in Minsk today. The discussions focused on the necessary consultations and exchange of information foreseen under the Espoo convention on environmental impact assessment. Belarus and Lithuania are parties to the Convention, and will assess the impact of the construction of a Belarusian hydro-electric station on the Neman River in Hrodna Voblast, near the Lithuanian border.
