CEC Chairman: electoral campaign in Belarus very efficient so far

The electoral campaign in Belarus is going smoothly, with no law violations detected, said Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairman Igor Karpenko when talking to reporters after the Commission meeting today, December 23rd. The meeting was primarily focused on registering candidates for the office of the President of the Republic of Belarus.
Mr Karpenko said he had thanked the people involved in the candidates’ initiative groups during the meeting, “Because, as you could see, the signatures they’ve collected and the process itself were high quality. All candidates submitted the number of signatures required by the law, and provided all the documents. All five of them meet the requirements the law has for Presidential candidates.”

“We have completed the vital signature collection stage; now it’s time to prepare for the campaigning period that starts on January 1st, 2025. That means the candidates still have time to adjust their campaigning strategies, population outreach, voter rallies, think again and review their electoral programmes,” he summarised.
“I’d like to remind everyone that local executive authorities have designated campaigning locations. Those are places where candidates can hold voter rallies, mass events, or place their campaign products at. All those locations may be used following the declarative principle, which means local election commissions should provide support on site. Right now, the Central Election Commission is starting to design banners with candidates’ general data that should be put up at all polling stations. We have also signed a contract with Belpochta (the national postal operator of the Republic of Belarus) to mail voting invitations and candidate information directly to citizens,” continued the CEC Chairman.

The Election Commission will also design a leaflet to be distributed in residential neighbourhoods, or other mass gathering places. It is going to have a QR code that links to candidates’ data presented in two languages: Russian and Belarusian.

Answering a follow-up question about whether he thinks this campaign has been organised efficiently, as President Lukashenko insisted, the CEC Chairman said, “We believe it has been organised efficiently. We receive strong feedback from all commissions, including local ones. Not only do we have a direct phone hotline for citizens, there’s also a separate exclusive line for all regional and local commissions, starting from the very moment they are set up. They can use that line to connect even to the Central Election Commission Chairman, if needed.”
“After all local commissions elect their chairpersons, we have training sessions planned for them. We have over 200 instructors in total ready for all regions and every district in Minsk; they are going to run training sessions for local commissions. We also have prepared videos for voters explaining how to vote ahead of time, how to vote at home, how voting is going to be organised on the election day, etc. The visual concept has already been approved and is in use. You can see posters announcing the presidential election and its date everywhere alongside the New Year decorations,” he concluded.

The election of the President of the Republic of Belarus is scheduled for January 26th, 2025.