Karpenko: electoral culture and electoral sovereignty depend on each of us

Electoral culture and electoral sovereignty depend on each of us, and we must understand that today there are many opponents of Belarus’ sovereignty and independence – as stated by Chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Igor Karpenko during the 1st Minsk Forum of Young Civil Servants. According to him, attempts to shake up the situation in Belarus from the outside have always been made.

“Elections will be the important socio-political events of 2024 and 2025,” noted Igor Karpenko. “Indeed, a serious transformation has taken place in our electoral system, primarily due to the amendments and additions that were made to the country’s Constitution. Today we are actually anticipating a single voting day. We’ve already carried out a number of important procedures related to the determination of districts for the election of deputies of the House of Representatives - there will be 110 of them throughout the country – and over 12,000 districts for the election of local councils’ deputies. We will have to elect them all on the same day: February 25th, 2024. The innovations are serious, so when talking about electoral culture, it is worth talking about electoral sovereignty. Unfortunately, the electoral system may also be subject to attempts at external influence and destabilisation of the situation. I don’t remember practically any elections in our country that took place calmly.”

According to the CEC Chairman, today in Belarus it is necessary to ensure security in all areas, be it electoral, economic or food.

“A lot depends on civil servants in this regard: will we be able to mobilise our people to carry out these important tasks and direct their work to consolidate society and strengthen our potential in all areas,” summed up Igor Karpenko.