The final report made by the OSCE ODIHR about the parliamentary elections in Belarus is politically biased, Chairperson of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Belarus Lidia Yermoshina told a roundtable session at the CIS Executive Committee in Minsk on December 17.
For the first time the preliminary report made by the OSCE ODIHR about the parliamentary elections mentioned the compliance of the election process with national laws instead of compliance with OSCE recommendations only. "The final document, however, omitted the compliance of the election campaign with national laws while it is a mandatory requirement: compliance of election processes with national laws must be indicated," said Lidia Yermoshina.
The final report focused on shortcomings of Belarus' elections and cited negative facts. Positive things were only briefly mentioned. "It testifies to the political bias of the document. Using the wording the OSCE final report contained (such as 'we've been told that', 'it is said that', no particular sources are mentioned) I would like to note that I've been told that mission head Mr Arens doesn't agree with the final report and criticised several things," said the CEC head. Thus the practice of using the international monitoring institution for punishing a country has not died yet. Lidia Yermoshina also added, monitoring outside the CIS is either nothing like in the USA or hostility monitoring like in Iraq, reported Belta.