MINSK, November 19. /TASS/. Minsk believes that the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) mission has failed to fully depart from politicized evaluation and conclusions regarding the elections in Belarus, Belarusian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Anatoly Glaz said in a commentary on Tuesday.
"We regret that the OSCE mission, just like in previous years, has been unable to fully depart from politicized assessments and conclusions. We also believe that international observers’ conclusions and assessments should not be based on personal bias and subjective approach," he stressed.
Glaz noted that Minsk had read the statements made by international observation missions after the parliamentary elections in Belarus as well as the European External Action Service’s statement on the issue. "In this regard, we wish to offer a reminder that there are no perfect electoral systems, and, if desired, flaws could be found in any electoral process in any country in the OSCE space," he said.
According to the diplomat, Belarus showed maximum transparency and invited a record number of international observers to monitor the elections. "According to many of them, the election campaign was calm, well-organized, open, transparent and competitive, in full accordance with national legislation and our international obligations, which is confirmed, in particular, by statements made by the CIS and SCO missions," he stressed.
Anatoly Glaz elaborated further by saying that Minsk was ready to face the OSCE's constructive criticism, but was not going to accept groundless mud-slinging and change election procedures upon someone’s orders.
"We have repeatedly told our Western partners that we are ready for constructive criticism, but we will never accept groundless and total mud-slinging, and if we are going to improve our election procedures and law, this will be done upon requests from our society and evolutionally, but not upon someone’s orders. We hold elections for our country and its people, but not to please foreign forces," the spokesman went on.
The diplomat stressed that Belarus was prepared to continue cultivating constructive cooperation in the areas of mutual interest with all international partners. "Only dialogue and cooperation rather than pressure, blackmail and sanctions will enable us to move forward on the issues that meet the interests of both Belarus and our partners," Glaz emphasized.
CIS monitors' conclusions
The evaluation of parliamentary elections in Belarus by monitors from the OSCE is not quite objective; moreover, it is biased, the chief of the CIS monitoring mission at the Belarusian parliamentary elections, Sergei Lebedev told the media on Tuesday.
"This is not surprising at all. We’d anticipated comments like that. The way we see it, this evaluation is not quite objective," he stated.
"Regrettably, the Western monitors are biased and set to make negative comments about the elections. We feel surprise and astonishment," Lebedev said.
CIS monitors noticed some flaws in the election process, too. "But they were very few and insignificant. The casual cases — possibly, no more than several dozen technical blunders — by no means indicate that the elections were undemocratic or not open enough," Lebedev revealed.
He said the CIS monitors’ evaluation of the elections remained unchanged. "The comments that we made yesterday remain. They are still relevant. There’s been nothing new that might affect our final conclusions," Lebedev claimed.
In the November 17 election 110 members of the Belarusian parliament’s lower house were elected. Voter turnout was 77.22%, exceeding the 2016 ballot by 3%. Not a single member of the opposition managed to take a seat on the highest legislative body.
CIS monitors concluded that the elections were held in accordance with the Constitution and the Belarussian Election Code, the principles of democratic expression of will, and on a contested basis, as well as were free and transparent. OSCE monitors argue that the elections fell short of the international standards. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the OSCO Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights shared the latter stance.