OREANDA-NEWS. September 9, 2008. At a briefing in Minsk, Head of the CIS Mission of Observers Nauryz Aidarov praised openness and accessibility of all election bodies for the parliamentary elections in Belarus.

“The CIS Mission has no serious remarks about the preparations to the parliamentary elections in Belarus,” Nauryz Aidarov said. He added that “there is a good tendency towards closer positions of the CIS and OSCE observers”. The meeting between the officials of the two missions testified to the fact.

The Head of the CIS Mission has underlined that at present 35 observers are monitoring the process in different regions of the country. They have already visited eight out of 110 district election commissions and are going to visit all district commissions by September 15.

According to Nauryz Aidarov, the Central Election Commission of Belarus and the government of the country have been taking concrete steps to ensure that the elections should be free and open. These steps include early invitation of international observers, timely adoption of the decree on CEC members in a consultative capacity, setting up of a supervisory board on mass media in the election campaign and a working group to control the election legislation.

The observer lauded openness and publicity in the work of the Central Election Commission. Nauryz Aidarov stated that the election campaign is held in a calm and favourable atmosphere. “There are sufficient grounds for the elections in Belarus to be recognized as free, open and fair,” the observer said.