Vladimir Andreichenko proposed to develop a legal standard for election protection in the CSTO

Vladimir Andreichenko, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, dedicated his speech at the 14th Plenary Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization to the election protection in the CSTO Member States, development of standards for democratic elections and the institution of international observation.
He recalled that elections based on national legislation are an internal affair of the state and are “one of the main ways for citizens to exercise their right to participate in the political life of the country and address state issues” and that each state “has the right to determine its election system independently, taking into account historical and cultural traditions, political structure of the society and the level of education of citizens.” Vladimir Andreichenko drew attention to the fact that in practice international election observation has gone beyond this and “has become a tool of political pressure from international organizations or groups of states, while any attempts to obtain truly universal criteria and standards from these organizations, including election assessment, are thwarted.’
Vladimir Andreichenko sees the solution in depolitization of the institution of international observation.
“Certainly, it seems right to adopt a decree on participation of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly in international observation of elections and referenda. However, at the same time we need to revisit such conceptual issues as definition of international legal standing of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly and to formalize election monitoring functions in the statute documents,” recalls the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, stressing the need to support “IPA CIS observation missions, include our representatives in them and agree on steps to publicize the results of their work.”