Every voter should pay 550 roubles to secure transparent ballot-boxes for B

Transparent ballot-boxes will be installed at all the 74 polling stations of Stolin District and at 3 stations in Pinsk and Minsk: in the Academy of Public Administration, in the Ministry of Agriculture and in Belarusian National Technical University. The CEC secretary Mikalai Lazavik has informed ERB about it. "Stolin District promises to provide all polling stations with transparent ballot-boxes. Transparent boxes will be installed in many Minsk election centres. We engaged the organizers of the election to install transparent ballot-boxes at polling stations when we were instructing them during seminars”. This is not the first “transparent” election in Stolin District, said the head of the district commission Ryhor Pratasavitski to ERB: "We have already held an election with transparent ballot-boxes, although they were not installed at all polling stations, only at half of them. But we will have transparent ballot-boxes at the presidential election”. Ballot-boxes were bought by stages in Stolin District. The first boxes appeared at the House of Representatives elections. District budget money was allocated on them as an experiment. There will be 74 ballot-boxes at the presidential election: one box at every polling station. According to Ryhor Pratasavitski, they were bought with the money allocated for the election. "We have been allocated money for the election this year. We estimated it and ordered about 21 ballot-boxes using the election money. A local private entrepreneur produced them and the first ones cost 170 thousands. We did it in three stages. It is a bit more expensive here - now it is about 280 thousands”. It turns out that one small transparent ballot-box costs a bit less than 100 dollars and 90% of the price is the cost of plastic. Every polling station needs at least 5 boxes: one box for the early election, three main ballot-boxes and three small boxes that will be brought to people’s homes. If you provide every polling station with five transparent ballot-boxes it will cost 400 dollars (200 dollars for big boxes and 200 – for small ones.) However, only 80 thousand roubles of the budget money is allocated to every polling station, said the head of the Central Election Commission Lidziya Yarmoshyna to ERB: "Most of the money is allocated for the work. Curtaining, making a stand. Of courses, ballot-boxes and polling-booths from the previous election will be used. Most of the money is spent on tablets, stands and wages of loaders and carpenters equipping polling stations”. 6 billion 437 million 273 thousand roubles is allocated for the material security of the election – each committee will get one million. The money is not supposed to be spent only on the equipment of polling stations. A lot is spent on transport delivering voting papers, on printing invitations, office supplies and communication services. However, committees can save money and buy ballot-boxes if they like as it was done in Stolin. "We allow 15 members in every district committee. There can be fewer of them somewhere – then they will be able to save. You can hardly save money in big cities. But they create small committees in villages – 7 or 8 people – and in hospitals – 5 people”, - says Lidziya Yarmoshyna. Uladzimir Nyaklyayeu, a potential presidential contender, offered transparent ballot-boxes from the neighbouring states to the CEC but they were not accepted. The national coordinator of the campaign “For Fair Elections” Syarhei Kalyakin agrees that Nyaklyayeu’s suggesting does not correspond to the legislation because it is not allowed to accept foreign assistance. However, Belarusian entrepreneurs and enterprises have the right to render assistance to committees and to buy transparent ballot-boxes: it is allowed by the law. Syarhei Kalyakin: "They have a right to offer their help but if election committees refuse to accept the assistance it will testify to the fact that transparent ballot-boxes will create obstacles to rigging the election”. 2.5 million dollars is needed to provide all the 6 346 polling stations with transparent ballot-boxes (44 foreign polling station are not taken into account). Basically, it is possible to get by with two transparent ballot-boxes at every polling station: for the main and early elections. Then it will cost 1 million 270 thousand dollars. In this case, every elector would have to pay 550 roubles. This is the approximate price of a pack of 10 matchboxes. Photo by: BelaPAN