|
Statement of the Press-Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of the Republic of Belarus on the elections in the USA
The Republic of Belarus attentively followed the course of
the presidential elections in the USA.
We respect the choice of the American people.
At the same time we would like to note the following.
According to the information from independent international
observers and representatives of mass media there were a number of
violations of fundamental international commitments related to elections
both during the election campaign and on the voting day. Among them were
violations of the obligations under the OSCE Copenhagen Document of 1990.
The United States authorities did not make sufficient efforts
to eliminate the serious shortcomings of the US electoral system, revealed
in September 2004 by the fact-finding Mission of OSCE ODIHR.
Therefore we are not surprised by the numerous reports on the
large number of missing preliminary voting-papers, failures of electronic
voting systems, intimidation of voters, missing voters in electoral
registers, impossibility to freely obtain information at local and county
electoral commissions on the voting procedure and sites.
According to the reports of Belarusian observers, some
foreign NGOs, including American ones, the US authorities have not ensured
an unimpeded work of the international observers, including those who
represented the Republic of Belarus. Accreditation of international
observers was practically impossible in a number of states. In the states
where accreditation was possible, the international observers, including the
OSCE observers, were limited by unprecedented strict constraints, imposed by
local state authorities.
These facts dispute the transparency and democratic nature of
the elections that took place in the USA.
We hope that the OSCE ODIHR mission of international
observers will accurately and impartially reflect the course of the
electoral campaign and will give a relevant assessment to the US elections. |
