Belarusian election campaign so far: 24 political prisoners, over 700 detained
Riot police on the streets of Belarus in summer 2020 / Euroradio
International organizations have called upon the Belarusian authorities to stop repressions and hold fair elections, according to the interim report on the 2020 electoral campaign in Belarus released by the Belarusian Helsinki Committee and the human rights center Viasna. The two organizations have teamed up within the Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections campaign.
During the ongoing electoral campaign, the number of political prisoners in Belarus has reached 24. At least 703 people were detained. Almost 130 of them were sentenced to administrative arrest, 252 were fined.
Human rights defenders note that conditions in Belarus do not meet international standards for fair, democratic elections based on the principles of equal political competition.
The incumbent head of state Alyaksandr Lukashenka began his electoral campaign well before the official registration as a candidate, making use of the state-owned media and the apparatus of the "power vertical" for political mobilization and campaigning.
