BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

14/03/2006

Early Voting Begins In Belarus

March 14, 2006 -- Advance voting opened today in Belarus's presidential elections in which President Alyaksandr Lukashenka is widely expected to win a third term in office.

The main opposition candidate in the March 19 vote, Alyaksandr Milinkevich, said advance votes would simply be stolen by the authorities.

Officials have dismissed the criticism as groundless.

Meanwhile Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin was quoted as accusing "certain partners" of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) of trying to "manipulate" the vote.

Opposition groups, human-rights advocates, the European Union, and the United States say they do not expect the election to be free or fair.

Minsk last week refused to grant observer status to a European Union delegation at the March 19 presidential elections. Georgian observers were today barred from entering the country.

(compiled from agency reports)

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/03/5377de2c-bb19-4414-b458-8ad0107d9f4d.html