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In an open letter to Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Prosecutor General Yury Chaika, dozens of German scientists and representatives of think tanks protest against the listing of EPDE as “undesirable organisation”.

The use of administrative resources and irregularities in electoral campaign financing persist, according to the second Promo-LEX report on monitoring the new local elections.

The listing of EPDE as „undesirable foreign organisation“ in Russia limits, in the first instance, the rights of Russian citizen election observers and isolates them from international election observation.

ISFED presented its final report of monitoring of the 2017 local self-government elections in Georgia. The report (attached) covers ISFED’s key findings and trends of the pre-election, Election Day and post-election periods

EPDE has become the target of orchestrated smear and defamation campaigns by the Russian media in the run-up to the Russian presidential election.

The German-Russian Exchange (DRA) declares solidarity with EPDE and IESC, and their striving to promote independent non-governmental international election observation, which can contribute to the legitimacy of fair elections.

“Golos” experts analysed information from long-term observers in the regions as well as information from the media and the crowdsourcing service "Map of Violations."

On 18 February 2018, the local elections in Belarus were over. Independent Belarusian media once again reported high turnout, while voters generally show little interest.

Administrative resources  were actively  used  by current deputies taking part in official  events, which was justified by the district election commissions. This created unequal conditions for  other candidates. 

Although declaring early election is in line with the Constitution and the Election Code of the country, it is against the principles of democratic constitutionalism and periodicity of elections.

The Batory Foundation wishes to express a deepest concern and to draw attention to the threats connected with the change of electoral rules implemented by the Act dated 11^th January 2018.

Current legislative restrictions on the right to be elected president that relate to previous convictions and the need for the presidential nominee to have a valid residence permit, are excessive, unfair, and undemocratic.

Observers of the campaign “Human Rights Defenders For Free Elections” report that the election commissions in most cases did not create obstacles to the registration of nomination groups.

The fact that the application for registration of the Initiative Group for conducting a legislative referendum was rejected, puts in doubt the citizens’ right to directly exercise sovereignty. Promo-LEX Association is alarmed by the trends that take shape in the society.

The Movement for Defence of Voters' Rights Golos criticises the political surveillance of its participants since August, 2017. Golos participants were subjected to additional checks at border crossing for about 50 times.

The Court rejected the complaint filed by HCA Vanadzor challenging the lawfulness of the territorial electoral commission’s actions and the decision made, and, the plaintiffs were deprived of the opportunity to appeal the decision by re-examination.

The second Winter Camp for election observers of the member organisations of the European Platform for Democratic Elections took place in Warsaw, Poland, involving a large group of experts, observers and volunteers from Eastern and Western Europe.

Observation is carried out by the Belarusian Helsinki Committee and the Human Rights Center "Viasna" in the framework of the campaign "Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections".