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PACE won’t send observers to presidential election in Belarus

Belarus is scheduled to hold the presidential election on August 9

PARIS, July 21. /TASS/. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is not planning to send its delegation to monitor the presidential election in Belarus due on August 9, the organization’s press service told TASS on Monday.

PACE noted that it had received an invitation from the Belarusian parliament on July 15 to send delegates to the presidential election. However, according to the spokesperson PACE President Rik Daems responded that given the limited time before the election, the lack of observers from partner organizations, including the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and also the changing situation in the healthcare field linked to the coronavirus and related restrictions on trips for its members, the Assembly could not send its delegation.

Belarus is scheduled to hold the presidential election on August 9. On July 14, the Belarusian Central Election Commission made a decision to register five presidential candidates - incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko, Andrei Dmitriev, Anna Kanopatskaya, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Sergei Cherechen.

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