In Belarus, the absence of Russian in the ballots for the presidential election was explained

It is not necessary to be unnecessarily active on the issue of which language the ballot will be printed in the upcoming presidential elections. This was announced today, January 10, by the head of the Central Election Commission of Belarus Igor Karpenko.

"We are in an open public format, there was a broadcast on the CEC website online, reviewed and adopted a resolution on the bulletin. We made a collegial decision, for which we voted. This means that this decision must be implemented by all government agencies and citizens who take part in the voting.… Therefore, to some such citizens who are showing this unnecessary activity regarding the language in which the ballot will be issued, (the advice is as follows): come to the polling station, carefully familiarize yourself with the data of the candidates and make your informed choice," he said.

In addition, Karpenko noted that the CEC is doing everything possible to protect the country's electoral sovereignty during the presidential elections. According to him, the commission cannot fight the Internet and other means that convey this or that information.

"Let it be on the conscience of those destructive forces that are trying to influence in some way. It is clear that we will not block the Internet, some sources of information - we have an open democratic country, and everyone draws information from the source from which he considers it necessary," Karpenko said.

At the same time, he said that Belarus has taken certain measures, having approved the concept of "electoral sovereignty" in the Concept of National Security. According to him, this is the exclusive right of the state to conduct electoral campaigns and referendums independently, without any influence, in accordance with the Constitution, current legislation, the interests of the state and the Belarusian people.

"Therefore, of course, we have laid down a number of measures. This is a requirement for candidates — both for president and for deputies, it is a ban on funding from abroad candidates, political parties, structures that participate in elections ... a number of other measures. This includes the topic of creating polling stations abroad, a topic related to photo and video recording of a completed newsletter. We have already tested these measures somewhere on a single voting day," the head of the CEC said.

Karpenko also did not rule out that outside influence on the electoral process is possible during the elections, and stressed that the organization of the electoral campaign should be handled by those entities that are defined by law, and others should not interfere in other people's competencies.

"That is, if a citizen comes to the polling station and tries to command the commission, how to issue ballots to it, how to organize the voting process, then this can also be interpreted as an encroachment on electoral sovereignty by and large," Karpenko explained.

After that, he assured that the CEC would try to do everything to ensure the electoral sovereignty of the republic and conduct the election campaign in accordance with the current legislation.

"So that it is transparent, transparent and meets all the requirements of the Belarusian legislation," Karpenko summed up.

Recall that the presidential elections in Belarus will be held on January 26. Earlier, the CEC of the republic reported that according to Articles 33 and 72 of the Electoral Code, ballots are printed in Russian or Belarusian, and the form and content of the presidential election ballot is determined by the CEC. It was noted that on December 23, the CEC made a collegial decision to print the bulletin in the Belarusian language.