Belarusian election neither free nor democratic - OSCE Parliamentary Assembly
The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly election monitoring mission thinks that the Belarusian parliamentary election was neither free nor democratic.
The election was neither democratic nor free from the very beginning, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly short-term election monitoring mission head Matteo Mecacci told a Monday press conference in Minsk.
He said many party candidates were registered but some of the potential candidates were in prison or could not take part in the election because of outstanding convictions or various administrative reasons.
Mecacci said they regretted that the voice of those persons was not heard. The OSCE is prepared to continue the interaction with Belarus. The critique offered on Monday aims to eliminate the shortcomings rather than to have a confrontation with Belarus, he said.
In turn, OSCE/ODHIR election monitoring mission head Antonio Milososki said the mission had questions about the registration of candidates and televised and radio debates. He criticized candidates' addresses and televised debates for being recorded rather than broadcasted live and said that gave a chance for censorship.
