Yarmoshyna: We can't afford to have 19 members on election committees

There are only 26 representatives of opposition parties in election committees this year. The total number of election committee members is 63816. Most election committees consist of 14 members although the Election Code allows up to 19 members in every election committee. Yet, it is not practical to increase the number of members only because of the opposition.

The financing is limited and election committee members need to get paid normally for their work, chairperson of the Central Election Commission Lidziya Yarmoshyna explained to Euroradio:

“Nobody wants 19 members because people need to get paid decently. If we increase the number of members to 19, the pay will be very low. We allocate money for 15 members in election committees in Minsk and for 14 members in regional committees. That is why they have this number of members. We need to save money. We cannot finance 19 members because nobody will give us the money.”

The CEC also noted that local authorities need to cooperate with local opposition politcians. “Not all of them are trouble-makers," Lidziya Yarmoshyna said. Membership refusals can be appealed in court, the CEC chairperson added.

The United Civil Party and the Belarusian Populr Front party indeed went to court to appeal membership refusals to include their representatives in election committee. However, their appeals were not satisfied.