District election committee comments on carousel voting claims

Ballot papers were given out according to the existing voting lists at the recent local elections, Frunzenski District Election Committee has announced in the official reply to activist and ex-candidate Mikita Semyanenka's inquiry. The man filed a complaint with the police in connection with the fact that activist Dzyanis Krauchuk had managed to vote three times at different polling stations.

Dzyanis Krauchuk’s case triggered media frenzy. The young man having no Minsk registration managed to vote thrice at different polling stations in Minsk during the early voteting stage. Krauchuk wrote the '000-179' digits with a pencil in his passport. He had reportedly learnt about the trick on social media and managed to vote at the polling stations located at grammar school No 4 and at schools No 185 and No 201.

When asked to comment on this incident, Central Election Commission (CEC) chairperson Lidziya Yarmoshyna described it as a provocation.

Krauchuk lodged a complaint to the police in connection with his carousel voting. Candidate and activist of the Movement For Freedom Mikita Semyanenka also lodged a complaint to the police.

Semyanenka is yet to receive a reply from the police. The Interior Ministry has forwarded his complaint to the district election commission. The commission replied to the ex-candidate that ballot papers were given out according to the existing voting lists. Citizens having the right to vote were required to produce their passport or other IDs mentioned in a relevant CEC regulation in order to cast a ballot. He showed his passport everywhere and his name was not added to any lists, according to Krauchuk. 

Minsk's Frunzenski District Police Department told Semyanenka that a checkup is in progress, tut.by reports. All the complaints sent to the General Prosecutor’s Office, CEC and police are being forwarded to the very district election commission, the ex-candidate complains.