Turnout climbs 44% on first early vote day at Minsk polling station No 637

Almost half of the voters came on the first day of the early vote, Yuras Hubarevich running for MP in Minsk's Kalinouskaya constituency No 108 wrote on Facebook.

"928 BNTU students voluntarily voted at polling station $637, the election committee reports. It is 44.2% of the voters registered there,” the candidate wrote. 2100 people are supposed to vote at that polling station.

Observers only noticed 417 people willing to vote on that day, the politician added.

The early vote in Belarus draws a lot of criticism from the opposition and independent observers who claim voters are forced to vote early. Ballot boxes are left unguarded at night which gives room for rigging, according to observers.