You're reading: Minsk regrets OSCE mission’s politicized election assessments

MINSK - Minsk welcomes the CIS mission's balanced assessment of Sunday's parliamentary election in Belarus and regrets what it described as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) mission's failure to stop offering politicized reports and conclusions.

“We welcome the balanced and objective assessment presented by the
CIS mission, which did a great deal to monitor the electoral process in
Belarus,” Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Savinykh said in a
commentary posted on the ministry’s Web site.

Regrettably, “the OSCE observation mission, as in previous years,
proved unable to fully separate itself from politicized assessments and
conclusions that have nothing to do with the electoral process itself,”
he said.

“At the same time, we noted the mission leadership’s declared
readiness to cooperate with Belarus, which would meet our common
interests,” Savinykh said.

“Dialogue and cooperation, not pressure and sanctions, will help us
move forward on issues that meet the interests of both Belarus and its
partners,” he said.

The Belarusian authorities sent out invitations to international
election observers well in advance and provided all of the conditions
needed for their efficient work, Savinykh said.

“The international observers were given an opportunity to access
complete and accurate information addressing all of the aspects of the
election campaign they might have found interesting,” he said.