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Belarus tried to make parliamentary elections flawless, Lukashenka says

 

The authorities tried to make the parliamentary elections in Belarus democratic down to the dot of the "i," Alyaksandr Lukashenka said on Monday while meeting with Sergei Lebedev, head of the CIS observation mission for Belarus' September 18-23 House of Representatives elections.

"Naturally, there were some 'rough edges,'" Mr. Lukashenka said, according to his press office. "After all, this is a whole country, more than 7,000 polling stations, about 7.5 million voters. There will probably be some drawbacks and we're fully determined to work on them."

"You have probably noticed that we get a little better election after election and try to make all these processes automatic," Mr. Lukashenka said. "One again, [we're doing this] because of dreadful pressure from Western states, you know this. We are calm about this. Even they probably have some kernels of truth. I'm ready to listen to them myself and make appropriate conclusions. The only thing we don't accept is excessive pressure a priori. Our law and constitution reign supreme."

Vladimir Churov, head of the central election commission of Russia, pointed out very correctly that the Belarusian elections should be assessed on the basis of its constitution and Electoral Code, while everything else is "foam," Mr. Lukashenka said.

Belarus' electoral regulations may be slightly imperfect, but it is necessary to abide by them as long as they are in force, he said.

Mr. Lebedev, for his part, said that, unlike their OSCE counterparts, the CIS observers had come to Belarus as friends. The parliamentary elections in Belarus were not without shortcomings, but they were insignificant and did not affect the election results, he stressed.

Mr. Lebedev described the elections as free and democratic and thanked Belarusian authorities for cooperating with CIS observers in every way. // BelaPAN