The Election Commission for the elections to the Coordination Council announced the preliminary results of the vote. 6,723 people took part in the voting. The on-line voting took place from May 25 to May 27.
The votes were distributed as follows:
Latushka’s Team and the Movement for Freedom (Pavel Latushka) — 2,358 (35.1%),
Prakopieu-Yahorau block (Vadzim Prakopieu) — 1050 (15.6%),
“Independent Belarusians” (Maxim Shabutski) – 616 — 9.2%),
“European Choice” (Aliaksandr Dabravolski) — 605 (9%),
“Youth Offensive” (Lizaveta Prakopchyk) — 598 (8.9%),
“Our Cause” (Rosa Turarbekava) — 489 (7.3%),
“Volya” (Aliaksander Kabanau) — 432 (6.4%),
“Stop being afraid” (Tatsiana Martynava) – 226 (3.4%).
The remaining blocks — Solidarity, Voice of Diasporas-Unity over Borders and Country for Life — received less than 3% of the votes of those who took part in the voting.
The mandates of the lists with more than 3% of the votes are distributed as follows:
Latushka’s Team and the Movement for Freedom – 28,
Prakopieu-Yahorau block-13,
“Independent Belarusians” – 8,
“European Choice” – 8,
“Youth Offensive ” – 8,
“Our Cause” – 6,
“Volya” – 6,
“Stop being afraid” – 3.
The period from May 29 to June 8 is set for filing and consideration of complaints. And the final election results will be announced on June 8. The first meeting of the Coordination Council of the 3rd convocation will be held on June 15.
What is the Coordination Council?
The Coordination Council (CC) was established in Minsk in the summer of 2020. The organization has set itself the goals of “overcoming the political crisis in Belarus” and “protecting the sovereignty and independence of the country.”
Some of the leaders and founders of the CC, like Maryia Kalesnikava, Maxim Znak and others, ended up behind bars. Some of the organizers and participants went abroad, some stopped their political activities.
On August 9, 2022, the Council was reorganized. Its main task was the development of “program and strategic documents, the organization of discussion of socially significant issues, international cooperation, as well as the preparation and discussion of concepts for the development of Belarus”.
In early February 2023, the composition of the “reformed” Coordination Council was published. Among other things, she was joined by public figure Sviatlana Matskevich, businessman Aliaksandr Knyrovich, leader of the “Honest People” initiative Alena Zhyvaglod, representatives of the Education Office for New Belarus, Free Belarus Center, ZUBR, BEROC, the Association of Belarusian Students and other organizations.
The second convocation of this political structure (February 9, 2023) consists of 25 members of the main composition of the Coordination Council the first convocation (August 19, 2020), 15 self—nominees, as well as 75 delegates from civil society organizations and democratic forces (15 each from five thematic sectors – “Political organizations”, “Human rights, youth and ecology”, “Education, culture and media”, “Local communities, trade unions and business”, “Diasporas”).
The term of office of the second convocation of the Council is one year from the date of the first constituent assembly (February 8, 2023) after the formation of the full composition. The delegates of the third and subsequent convocations will be chosen by the citizens of Belarus “on the basis of universal, direct, equal and secret ballot.” 80 delegates will be elected to the Council of the third convocation, with a term of office of 2 years. The team of the New Belarus IT platform has the technical ability to ensure the voting process.
The Belarusian authorities have recognized the CC as an “extremist formation.”
On November 28, 2023, searches were conducted in Belarus of members of the organization and people whom the security forces suspect of involvement in the COP. Chairman of the Coordination Council Andrei Yahorau said that the regime’s actions clearly demonstrate the importance of the upcoming parliamentary elections for Belarusians.
Elections to the III convocation of the Coordination Council were held from May 25 to 27. They were conducted online using a data encryption program.
On the eve of the elections, the list of “Law and Order” headed by Aliaksandr Azarau was removed from the race for sending subscribers of the chatbot “Pieramoha”. The scandal began not only because of such a means of agitation, but also because notifications were sent to people who had long blocked or deleted the bot, which could have framed people living in Belarus.
There were forced changes in Rosa Turarbekava’s list of “Our Cause” at the last moment. After removing two women from the list, the head of the association had to delete two male colleagues from the list in order to meet the gender quotas introduced for the elections. The list itself criticized the fact of gender quotas.