Single Voting Day kicked off in Belarus

Today, on February 25^th, Single Voting Day is being held in Belarus, and deputies to the House of Representatives of the eighth convocation of the National Assembly and local councils of deputies of the twenty-ninth convocation are being elected, BelTA reports

The registration of candidates for deputies ended on January 30^th, and – from January 31^st to February 24^th – there was the campaign period. February 25^th is the main election day, and campaigning is prohibited by law.

Early voting was organised on February-20^th-24^th, and voters showed a fairly high turnout: 41.71 percent of those on the voting lists.

Polling stations opened at 8am countrywide, and they will work until 8pm. Ballots are issued to voters upon presentation of a passport, an identification card, a biometric passport, a military identification card (for conscripts), an official identification card of state employee (organisation) or a driver's licence. Voting is also possible based on a pension certificate, a disability certificate (if there is a photo) and a student or school ID card. If a voter makes a mistake or spoils a ballot while filling it out, they can contact members of the precinct election commission and receive a new ballot. However, a voter can only use this right once. It is forbidden to take photos or videos of a ballot after voting.

5,411 polling stations work in Belarus, and a service to search for a polling station has been launched on the main page of the Central Election Commission’s official website. In turn, the addresses and phone numbers of all territorial, district and precinct election commissions are available in the section dedicated to the current election campaign.

According to the CEC, 45,505 national observers are monitoring the election campaign, in addition to 294 international observers. Observation missions from the CIS, SCO, representatives of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union State of Belarus and Russia, heads and representatives of electoral bodies of foreign states, as well as experts from European and other countries, including Italy, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia and Bulgaria participate in monitoring the elections of deputies on Single Voting Day.

Security issues were taken into account while preparing for the election campaign. In addition, training sessions were held with members of election commissions, and close co-operation was established between all involved structures for the conduct of elections.