[CivilSoc] Belarus Urged to Invite Election Monitors

[Center for Civil Society International]

The following item, concerning the September 9 presidential elections
in Belarus, comes from RFE/RL (Un)Civil Societies Vol. 2, No. 29, 25
July 2001. Back issues are online at http://www.rferl.org/ucs/
OSCE URGES MINSK TO INVITE INTERNATIONAL ELECTION MONITORS.
Hans Georg Wieck, head of the OSCE Advisory and Monitoring Group in
Minsk, said on 18 July that OSCE Permanent Council Chairman Liviu
Bota has called on Belarusian authorities to invite international
observers for the 9 September presidential elections, Belapan
reported. Wieck added that the OSCE wants to send to Belarus 14 long-
term observers, whose mandate will begin six weeks before the
election, and some 150 short-term observers through the OSCE Office
for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. Meanwhile, Belarusian
Television reported on 18 July that a delegation of an organization
named the Association of the Organizers of Elections in Central and
East European Countries has already arrived in Minsk, thus
inaugurating the process of international monitoring of Belarus's
presidential ballot. ("RFE/RL Newsline," 19 July)