OSCE Rebukes Belarus Elections

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MINSK 000309 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS KIEV ALSO FOR USAID E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL BO SUBJECT: OSCE Rebukes Belarus Elections SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED; PROTECT ACCORDINGLY ¶1. (U) Summary. At a joint press conference on March 20, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and OSCE ODIHR representatives declared that the presidential elections in Belarus did not meet international standards or OSCE commitments for free and fair elections. Preliminary conclusions from their observations highlighted some positive aspects, but mainly focused on the elections' shortcomings, including a "problematic vote count," non-transparent early voting, KGB allegations that opposition leaders were planning a terrorist attack, and the overwhelming coverage of President Lukashenko in the state media prior to the elections. Opposition candidate Aleksandr Milinkevich criticized the OSCE assessment as "too soft." Not surprisingly, the CIS observation team called the Belarusian elections "open and transparent." End Summary. ¶2. (U) On March 20, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA) and OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) held a joint press conference to announce their assessment of the March 19 Belarusian presidential elections. ODIHR fielded 37 long-term observers and 439 short-term observers, while OSCE PA contributed 107 observers to the March 19 election observation mission. OSCE Said Elections Did Not Meet International Standards -------------- -------------- ¶3. (U) OSCE PA President Alcee Hastings criticized the March 19 Belarusian presidential elections, saying that they did not meet international standards or OSCE commitments for free and fair elections. While he admitted that Belarus has made some progress in conducting elections, citing as an example the registration of the candidates, Hastings stated that the shortcomings of this election far outweighed the positive aspects. Hastings noted that Belarus failed to live up to its international commitments when the GOB prevented observers from participating and denied visas and entry to 19 PA observers. Hastings accused the GOB of abusing its power in order to prevent free and fair elections, especially the GOB's disregard of Belarusian citizens' rights to freedom of assembly, and association and the GOB's intimidation and suppression of independent voices and media. He urged the GOB to make use of the OSCE's knowledge and added that he hoped Belarus would maintain an open and constructive dialogue with OSCE members and institutions. ODIHR Remarked On Deterioration of the Elections -------------- --- ¶4. (U) Head of the long-term ODIHR observation mission Ambassador Geert-Hinrich Ahrens echoed Hastings sentiments that the elections were not free and fair. Ahrens said that ODIHR came to Belarus with an open mind six weeks ago with the hope of good cooperation during the election monitoring mission. Much to his regret, however, Ambassador Ahrens said that he could not offer a positive assessment of the elections in Belarus because of the numerous violations of international election standards. He added that he was "deeply saddened to witness the deterioration that occurred towards the end of the election campaign." Ahrens reminded the audience that the OSCE statement does not mean "the door has been slammed shut on Belarus," and expressed his hope for future cooperation with the country. Highlights from OSCE PA/ODIHR's Preliminary Conclusions -------------- -------------- ¶5. (U) After the press conference, OSCE PA and ODIHR offered a preliminary conclusions report and promised a full report in eight weeks. The preliminary report focused on the shortcomings of the elections, which they claimed far outweighed the positive aspects. The report said that OSCE PA and ODIHR were deeply troubled by the vote count process. According to the preliminary conclusions, vote counting was "problematic and lacked transparency." Although physically present, observers could not follow the counting process in a meaningful way and concluded that the transparency was bad or very bad. Observers were not permitted to stand close enough to see the count and many of the results were recorded in pencil. Observers reported that 69 percent of polling stations did not announce the number of votes for each candidate before completing the protocols. ¶6. (U) The OSCE preliminary report detailed concerns with the "non- transparent" early voting process in Belarus. While orderly, 11 percent of spot reports on early voting characterized the process negatively. The lack of clearly defined procedures to document and store ballots could easily lead to voting malfeasance. Under great pressure from officials, many voters, including students and state employees, were instructed to vote early. ¶7. (U) While the preliminary conclusions reported that 89 percent of OSCE PA and ODIHR observers assessed the Election Day voting positively, 11 percent offered negative assessments for various MINSK 00000309 002 OF 003 violations including failure to mark ballots in secret, family and group voting, improperly sealed ballot boxes, visible candidate campaign material, and a series of identical signatures on voting lists. Unauthorized persons, including police, emergency response staff and firemen, were at 7 percent of polling stations. ¶8. (U) OSCE's preliminary conclusions also highlighted a KGB statement accusing the opposition of planning a terrorist attack under the guise of elections as one of the shortcomings. OSCE went on to add that state media's overwhelming and favorable coverage of Lukashenko contributed to their negative assessment of the elections. In approximately 16 hours of news devoted to the four candidates on the major state TV and radio channels, Lukashenko received more than 93 percent of the coverage, and in some cases 99 percent. OSCE also reported that by March 18, 10 of Milinkevich's 30 authorized representatives, 100 Milinkevich activists, and 80 Kozulin campaign supporters were under arrest/detention. ¶9. (U) OSCE PA and OSCE/ODIHR noted several positive aspects of the campaign including the registration of four candidates, thus offering the voters the potential for choice; the efficiency of the CEC; the large number of women represented on election administration boards; the opportunities for the candidates to use the media, albeit somewhat censored; and peaceful and orderly voting on Election Day. Questions at the Press Conference -------------- ¶10. (U) During the question and answer session that followed the press conference, Hastings admitted that there were many shortcomings in the elections, but urged all that have complaints to use the court system or peaceful protests to settle disputes in a nonviolent manner. In response to inquiries as to why their statements were not harsher, Hastings answered that he did not see how the organizations' statement could be any more forceful since they declared that the elections did not meet international standards or OSCE commitments. Ahrens stressed that their assessment was supported by substantial empirical evidence, citing more than 3,500 reported violations from observers on Election Day. Hastings followed up by saying that no one was afraid to offer a negative assessment, and that "they called it [i.e. the elections] the way they saw it." ¶11. (U) When asked if he feared that OSCE would not be invited back to Belarus, Hastings told reporters that the Parliamentary Assembly has a good working group and that he is confident that the dialogue would continue. In response to an inquiry regarding what he thought about the opposition's statement that they do not recognize the president, Hastings replied that he was not in a position to support anyone's statements. When asked how OSCE could lend legitimacy to an election they knew would not be free or fair by sending an observation mission, Hastings responded that the OSCE PA and ODIHR could not possibly have known what they would find out or observe until they came to observe and reminded the journalist that to have done anything else would have been to pre-judge the elections. Ahrens added that ODIHR sent out an assessment team prior to accepting the observation invitation to determine the situation in Belarus warranted a full observation mission. Milinkevich Declares OSCE Assessment to be "Too Soft" -------------- -------------- ¶12. (U) On March 20, opposition leader Aleksandr Milinkevich announced his dissatisfaction with the OSCE PA and OSCE/ODIHR's evaluation of the elections, saying that their assessment was "too soft." In protest, Milinkevich claimed that the opposition would not recognize the results of the presidential elections. Milinkevich also promised that the opposition would not split up after the elections, but would "continue its work." CIS Observation Mission Calls Elections "Open and Transparent" -------------- -------------- ¶13. (U) At an earlier press conference on March 20, CIS election observation team head Vladimir Rushailo declared the Belarusian presidential elections to be open and transparent. The 467 CIS observers identified 98 violations during the election process, ranging from problems with candidate registration and signature collection to voter booths that were "too narrow." In general, however, Rushailo said the CIS mission concluded that "Belarus created the necessary legal and organizational environment for monitoring the elections, which indicates that the elections were open." CIS observers commented that the elections occurred against a backdrop of "unprecedented external pressure," including biased statements and pre-judgments by foreign countries as well political and economic pressure in order aimed at influencing the outcome of the elections. Comment MINSK 00000309 003 OF 003 -------------- ¶14. (SBU) ODIHR observers told Poloffs on March 19 that these elections "set new lows in many ways." Observers also revealed to Post that ODIHR's original version of the assessment was much harsher, but had to be softened in order to find common language to which both OSCE PA and ODIHR could agree. KROL