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“Today, the day after the candidates’ registration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent invitations in full accordance with previously published public statements. [stebėti] elections to the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, “said Glaz.
He stressed that these are Belarusian traditional partners in electoral observation.
“We are not taking a step back from our approvals and commitments, including from the OSCE,” said a representative from the Foreign Ministry.
“Belarus has never held elections without observers. And this time, from the beginning, we were determined to invite observers from the OSCE ODIHR after the registration of the candidates. This has been said many times in public, and this position has also been has announced to our partners in the West. as well as the Bureau and [jo vadovei] Ingibjorg Solrun Gislatutir (Ingibjorg Soulrun Gisladoutir) in person. In this context, we are completely transparent and can verify it, “said Glas.
The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs added that in the near future the country’s parliament will send invitations to parliamentary structures such as the Parliamentary Assembly of the Belarusian-Russian Union, the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the CIS, the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
“Of course, the situation with the spread of coronavirus infection has led to changes in many areas, including ODIHR’s electoral observation practices. This is the first time such a situation has arisen. We have carefully analyzed the experiences of others Participating countries in which elections have been held in recent months. In current special circumstances, in most, if not all, cases, the ODIHR has sent special monitoring missions consisting of several experts, “Glas said.
He noted that international observers arriving in Belarus, like other participants in the electoral process, would have to follow certain precautionary measures developed by the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Health and the Central Election Commission based on the recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Belarus has been and remains open to international observers and is ready to create all the necessary conditions for the effective work of foreign observers in the upcoming elections,” said Glaz.
The OSCE said earlier Wednesday that it would not observe the presidential elections in Belarus because it did not receive an invitation in time.
For her part, Lidia Yermoshina, the Belarusian CRC president, said Minsk would invite international observers as the spread of COVID-19 slowed.
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