17-03-2006: Joint communiqué of the Danish and Lithuanian social democratic parties on the situation in Belarus

The Social Democratic Party of Lithuania and the Social Democratic Party of Denmark strongly condemn the escalation of harassment, obstruction and violation of the democratic principles in the current presidential election process.

This week numerous independent election observers and exit-pollers from Denmark and Sweden were expelled form the Republic of Belarus. They were obstructed in their work of monitoring and collecting independent exit polls to validate the legitimacy of the election. The observers and pollers were detained and interrogated for hours by the Belarussian police and the intelligence agency – KGB.

Lithuanian social democratic MP Birute Vesaite was rejected visa to enter Belarus as an OSCE observer without giving reasons from the Belarus Embassy what so ever.

First, due to the fact that the independent exit-pollers and observers have been obstructed in their work, and as the social democratic MP gets rejected visa, it is evident that the regime of the Republic of Belarus wants to prevent the collection of independent reports of fraud. Therefore, our two parties are deeply concerned about the legitimacy of the presidential election this Sunday.

Second, we strongly condemn the means of harassment and obstruction by the Belarusian authorities up to this presidential election. For months, candidates, NGO’s, journalists, campaigners and opposition parties have been harassed, beaten up, jailed - and some even disappeared.

The Belarusian authorities are responsible of securing free and fair elections, and ensure the safety of all participants in this process. However, this has not been the case. Belarus has failed to live up to the standards of a democratic nation.

The Danish Social Democratic Party and the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party representatives, after consultations in Vilnius, urge the Republic of Belarus to change this pattern of obstruction up till the presidential election on Sunday. We demand that the authorities take actions to safeguard equal participation for all presidential candidates and their supporters. We demand that the authorities allow foreign exit-pollers and observers to enter the country to validate the legitimacy of the election.

Jeppe Kofoed, Foreign Policy Spokesman, Social Democrats of Denmark Juozas Olekas, Chair of the Social Democratic Fraction, Parliament of Lithuania