Igor Borisov: OSCE/ODIHR spoke positively about Belarus’ elections on election day

MINSK, 25 September (BelTA) – On election day the OSCE/ODIHR observers said that the electoral process in Belarus was going on normally, Igor Borisov, an independent observer from Russia, told reporters on 25 September commenting on the elections to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus, BelTA has learnt.

Igor Borisov informed that he spoke with representatives of the OSCE/ODIHR mission at a polling station on election day. Those were observers from Germany, Turkey and Russia. “All of them said the electoral process was administered properly,” he said. However, everything changed later. “We heard a different assessment when the chiefs of this mission read out a preliminary report. This attests to a sheer political bias,” he said.

The observer noted that he knew before what the report would say. “I had some guesses about it. I understood what kind of report they were preparing,” he said. The situation with the OSCE observers, according to Igor Borisov, demonstrates that Belarus is high on the geopolitical agenda of the West: “This kind of attitude, this kind of attention reveals that the state has a decent place there”.

Commenting on the skeptical attitude of the OSCE/ODIHR to the early voting procedure in Belarus, the expert said, “This is an example of double standards and an attempt to find flaws out of nothing. There is nothing to find fault with. Later they might criticize why the elections are held from 8:00 to 20:00”. He noted, “Observation groups of western civilized states sometimes try to push former Soviet Union republics to the uncivilized way of promoting democracy”. Igor Borisov noted that many experts offer various explanations regarding who might benefit from that. He pointed to the developments in the Middle East and Africa.

“We need to keep working to make the activities of the OSCE/ODIHR more democratic and lawful, so that they would take into consideration the opinion of their experts regarding election assessment,” Igor Borisov said.

Igor Borisov has taken part in election monitoring in Belarus several times already. Earlier he monitored electoral processes in Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Southeast Asia, North and South America. Igor Borisov also worked within the framework of the CIS and the OSCE/ODIHR. From 12 March 2007 to 28 March 2011 he was member of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation. At present he is Chairman of the Council of the Russian Public Institute of Electoral Law.