Elections have taken place: boycott/disregard strategy has failed in Belarusian environment

The Central Electoral Commission reported that voter turnout was 51.2% by noon on October 11^th. Such a high turnout was due to the authorities’ broad campaign encouraging early voting. During the early voting stage, polling stations have marked a record high turnout in the history of independent Belarus – 36,05% of voters throughout the country, and circa 40% in Vitebsk, Gomel and Brest regions. Election observers said that early turnout was due to the administrative coercion and fraud. This means that in Belarus, boycott strategies aiming to demonstrate the lack of support for the regime by non-participation in the voting would fail now, as well as in the future.