US Greets Parliamentary Vote in Belarus, Calls for Election Law Reform

The United States welcomes Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Belarus but hopes it will do more to increase transparency and opposition’s participation, the Department of State spokesman said Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Belarusians went to the polls last week to elect 101 lawmakers from the 448 candidates running for the National Assembly.

"The United States welcomes the peaceful conduct of the September 11 parliamentary elections in Belarus," John Kirby said in a statement. "We recognize some improvements in the electoral process…Still, the elections fell short of Belarus’ international obligations."

The Department of State noted the Belarusian government’s willingness to register more opposition candidates, but said it needed to undertake serious reform of the election law to improve transparency, address non-pluralistic composition of election commissions and overhaul the "restrictive" legal framework that governs elections.