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CEC hails election campaign in Belarus as successful

According to the head of the commission, there were 293 contenders fighting for 110 seats in the parliament

MINSK, September 24 (Itar-Tass) — The election campaign in Belarus was successful, the head of the Central Election Commission, Lidiya Yermoshina, said at a news conference on Monday.

“On the whole the election campaign proceeded calmly, with few conflicts and was successful,” she said, noting that the results of the parliamentary election will be summed up by the end of the week.

According to preliminary results, 109 deputies have been elected to the lower house of parliament, and only one deputy – from Gomel region’s Novobelitsa constituency, failed to get enough votes to be elected. “The election was valid in all districts, and over 70 percent of voters took part. A total of 109 deputies were elected,” she said.

As for the Novobelitsa constituency, more than 50 percent of eligible voters came to the polling stations there, but the candidate failed to get over 50 percent of the vote.

Five representatives from political parties are in the new parliament, including from the Agrarian Party, the Republican Party of Labor and Justice and the Communist Party of Belarus. According to the head of the commission, there were 293 contenders fighting for 110 seats in the parliament.

She also said that after two major opposition parties (the Belarussian People’s Front and the United Civil Party) withdrew from the race, the number of constituencies where there was only one candidate to vote for increased to 16, and elections were valid in 15 of them.

The Central Election Commission received 110 complaints from September 18 to 23, she said. According to Yermoshina, 99 of them were connected with the voting process and they came mostly from observers.