the information channel of the tv news agency continues its work in the studio of sergei lugovsky and polina shuba. good afternoon. there is a single voting day in belarus. the country makes its choice from 8 am. polling stations have been open for 4 hours and will close at 8 pm. our president, alexander lukashenko, cast his vote in favor of the candidates literally an hour ago at polling station 478, which journalists traditionally call number one. state arrived at the belarusian

state university of physical culture in a good mood, like everyone else voters, showed their passport, received a ballot, the process was followed by dozens of television cameras and media lenses, well, which one is more convenient, come on, everything is from one group, what is the basis of personal choice, the head of state told the journalist right there...

i said many times that with the president putin, we envisaged different scenarios for the development of events, and we counteract this , uh, if we, and even if it doesn’t fit here, we will always be united with russia, and you understand that in such a situation we can resist any enemy, uh, i don’t want talk more about how we will resist, because the current world is in strength.

to disturb the topic whether you will go or not, the next presidential elections i will go, i will go next year, tell them that i will go and if the more difficult the situation is, the more actively they will excite our society in you , including for me, believe me, this is very important , not a single person, a responsible president, will abandon his people who followed him into battle, so the more they strain you...

me and society, the faster i will go to these elections, so don’t worry, we will do what is necessary for belarus, that’s already a question from a foreign journalist. will answer many questions, you said correctly, our voting ends today, you have seen some clashes , some attempts, clashes, riots, as it was before, you have not seen and will not see, because we know how to draw conclusions from

our mistakes, we see our mistakes, we have drawn the appropriate conclusions, so we do this for ourselves, we need them to recognize us, you really need this. well, they recognize you, well if turkey starts a war in the middle east, and also goes against israel, god forbid, of course, this will be a blessing for them, limited conflicts around the world, in different places, this is what they want, this is what they they want, then they will talk less about multipolarity, the unipolar world will remain, the americans, as it used to be like... the gendarme, with their sleeves rolled up, their hands covered in blood up to their elbows, they will walk around the entire planet. only the turkish and belarusian peoples and others do not need this, they want to resolve issues as in ukraine by someone else's hands. what has ukraine achieved? well, it’s already so democratic,

it couldn’t be further. and these distraught people, especially the europeans, okay, the americans understand what they want, but why are these people hanging around there? they say in ukraine. true democracy, do you need democracy like in ukraine? we don’t need, no one needs war, that’s what their democracy has led to. of course, there were a lot of different questions, we’ll tell you all the details later as part of our information channel. active voters sports site number 77, it is located on the territory of the republican. olympic training center for winter sports raubichi. olympic champion dinaara smolskaya and anton smolsky voted here early, the belarusian team went to sports training. our colleague stanislav livsky continues to work at the site. stasis. what kind of atmosphere reigns in the sports complex?

good afternoon, colleagues, greetings to tv viewers. you know, due to your profession, or rather your specialization in the sports complex. directly here on in this place, i spend quite a lot of time because i come for various kinds of sports reports, so i officially declare that yes, the atmosphere of the holiday is felt, firstly, the elections, and secondly, literally on thursday the sports complex celebrated, just imagine its fiftieth anniversary , for which, of course, we congratulate raobichi, the election process is going on, how smoothly it is going, we’ll ask the chairman.

we are surprised that it is so early, but people want to show their civic position, their civic activity. thank you, sergey vasilyevich, we, of course, talked with voters, i will ask the directors to stage a fragment of the interview, and you will hear personally what the voters of our country think about their candidates, about a single voting day. you know that everything is very convenient, firstly, the transport took us there and will take us back, but the weather has just let us down. so everything is fine, thank you, what do elections mean to you, how important is this day? well, first of all, as a civil position, to fulfill your duty, voting is not difficult, as far as everything is organized well, are there any complaints? no, in general everything is fine, everything is very

comfortable, warm, cozy, i agree with this opinion, i’ll add that number 77 is registered at the raobichi site. this requirement has been satisfied. well, we continue to work at the seventy-seventh voting station in raobichi, one of the most sporting polling stations. let me remind you that it was here that dinara smolskaya and her husband anton cast their votes. the guys from the national team have now gone to training camp in armenia, so they voted early. i note again, that’s it is proceeding as normal, i am sure it will continue to do so. therefore, have a nice day everyone, let’s vote together, together we decide which

way our belarus will develop. colleagues, the floor is yours. thank you, stanislav livsky, about the work of sports station number 77. the regions also make their choice on the main voting day; in the gomel region, 955 polling stations are open from 8 am. elections of deputies at all levels are held in a calm and friendly atmosphere. entire families come to the polling stations and people vote. for the future of the country, for peace, development and prospects, active youth, including those who cast their vote for the first time, today i am celebrating my eighteenth birthday, i also came to vote for the first time, we are electing deputies, this is important, because young people should think about their homeland, because we will live here in harmony, i want , so that we all exist, so that everyone lives somehow together, unitedly, in a state educational institution , secondary school number 72 in the city of gomel.

yes, with such delight, the prosperity of our country, multiple achievements in our country, and of course, for belarusians this is not just a political campaign, but also a holiday for the soul with a rich cultural program, belarusian elections are also very tasty, there are buffets everywhere, out-of-town sales, a wide range of home-produced products are presented. more than 300 organizations of the gomel region presented the best products with minimal costs. international observers have a busy schedule today; each

has dozens of addresses across the country on their list, their responsibilities include checking the quality of the ballot box typos, the degree of preparation of the commission and national observers, monitoring the progress of the main voting day. we are working in several groups, each group has from 10 to 20 sites on the schedule, that is, in total, i think we will definitely go beyond the first hundred, maybe even beyond... from our point of view, everything is organized clearly in accordance with legislation of the republic of belarus, we talked with the members of the commission, we talked with observers, but we definitely didn’t hear or see anything alarming, and we expect that the work of the commission will continue in this way, among voters there will be every opportunity to make your democratic and free choice. observers from the shanghai cooperation organization are working at the polling stations, as the head of the mission said, the main thing... is to assess the electoral process precisely from the point of view of compliance with international

treaties, obligations and national electoral legislation, while observers in no way interfere in internal affairs, maintain neutrality and objectivity, we choose the areas ourselves, sometimes unexpectedly somewhere, no there is no pressure or any external influence on us, well, sometimes we ask for advice from our belarusian comrades, we do this sometimes taking into account the routes of our movements, until i draw any conclusions, we will do this collectively, collegially, but on the whole we we are satisfied with the conditions that have been created for the work of our mission; access to all facilities and information support are provided at a sufficiently high level, which is why we wish the people of belarus to exercise their right to express their will. i note that as part of the mission

there are 22 observers from the shanghai cooperation organization, representatives of almost all nine member states, these are employees of electoral and executive bodies, and embassies of foreign countries. let me remind you once again that a single voting day is being held in our country for the first time, the introduction of this format made it possible to unite two companies at once, for the election of deputies of the house of representatives of parliament and for the election of all local levels. councils of deputies, this approach is positively noted by belarusians, this is evidenced not only by the numbers of appearances, but also social research. we, as sociologists, have recorded a very positive trend and a high degree. interest in this particular event, even as early as may 2023, as soon as information about a single voting day began to appear, more than 60% of the population had already supported this initiative and expressed their readiness to participate in it. now we see that these are changes in our political system, they have a very positive effect on society, people are actively going to the

polls, people are actively expressing their position. and it is in the information center that our work continues. i’ll go, alexey, what do you think about this, this is happiness, we were all really looking forward to the announcement from the head of state that he would run for office, and we supported it in every possible way, prayed, and now we know that we still have years of stability and work ahead of us

to strengthen the sovereignty of all the good achievements of our people, this is joy, well, that’s just the head of state. having made this statement, i outlined one important point regarding the fact that i, strictly speaking, stated that if they continue to put pressure on our country, i will not go anywhere, i cannot abandon my people at this difficult moment, this is precisely the current election campaign, it is accompanied by nato exercises on our border, the most extensive, large-scale in recent times decades, do you think this is still a coincidence or an attempt to put pressure on the republic of belarus, in particular, they still understood that right now the election campaign is taking place in... the country, of course, this is a set of measures to put pressure on they are hitting our country on all fronts, trying to intimidate, trying to level it out, and you see , from the leaders of public opinion, they are trying to hit us with some kind of sanctions, the thirteenth sanctions list, yesterday you were included in another sanctions list, that’s right, we are there for a reason , for supporting the children

of donbass, for bringing them to our peaceful native country for rest and rehabilitation. more than 500 of them were here , they felt this joy, calmness, they were able to really relax, there was an understanding that life could be different, and today they are beating us, they are trying to somehow intimidate us, my family, my children, but we are really under god’s blessing, our whole country, we have experienced so many different terrible things...

regarding this, in your opinion, the belarusians emphasized in in their answer , they concluded, for example, from the events in ukraine, that if you are not involved in politics, then certain structures can do it for you, that familiar way of life, which is something commonplace for us today, can very significantly to change, absolutely, society is awakened and ready to act, and we see it today at

the polling stations, yesterday when i was there, i saw families, an informed look. with a clear civil position in opposition to that external pressure, wars, revolutions, maidans, indeed the head of state spoke about this quite recently, nothing is predetermined yet, we all must clearly realize this, be politically literate, motivated, as they say, yes we have seen this meme, if you are not involved in politics, then you are a politician. will take care of you, they will come those forces from outside who, yes, will try to establish their own order here, they are now afraid, indeed, russia is becoming sovereign, strong, courageous.

thank you, andrey, we will contact you in a few minutes. across the country today

there are 215 closed voting stations in sanatoriums, hospitals, rest homes and other temporary places. for citizens who do not have the opportunity to visit polling stations at their place of residence, all conditions have been created to fulfill their civic duty. our colleague yuri kornilovich visited such a site in grodno. we are now on the territory of the grodno university clinic, this is the largest healthcare institution in the region, there are two closed voting stations here. patients who are currently undergoing treatment, which is more than 600 people, can exercise their right to vote in the clinic. the electoral process here is the same as at regular polling stations. the main voting place is located in the lobby of the therapeutic building, for those who find it difficult to vote independently.

from observers, colleagues, kind, the situation is calm, we are all working in increased mode today, calls continue to come in, asking: is it possible to vote if you are on a business trip? answer, today only at the place of registration , a russian also applied, for more than 20 years , he lives in belarus, has a residence permit, but he did not find himself on the lists, operators respond to all these questions promptly, and also every 2 hours p

. i would also like to note that people are still interested in the candidates’ programs, someone, of course, is already coming to vote for him.

olga nikolaevna, thank you very much, and we continue to work in the center for public observation of elections, colleagues, thank you, dasha, thank you, daria rachko told us about the work of the center for public observation of elections. the head of the central election commission has a clear deadline, just a few minutes ago igor karpenko came to the on-site studio of the television news agency with the chairman of the election commission center, our colleague andrei sych talked about how the work of the central electoral commission was organized

commissions. throughout the election campaign, was there pressure on members of polling stations? colleagues, the head of the central election commission igor korpenko is joining our broadcast. igor vasilyevich, hello, how do you assess the current progress of the election campaign? in my opinion, everything is unfolding quite interestingly, again, in many ways, here the role of the central election commission played, well, a certain decisive role, because we have seen activity for a long time.

showed quite serious activity, labor collectives, well, they simply bombarded various government bodies with requests to send some of the specialists, that is , experts to these dialogue platforms, in this regard, we even decided to create an expert council, which was also actively involved in the work, these are people, political scientists, lawyers , that is, sociologists. those who are practitioners

who organize the electoral process, those who are actively engaged in scientific research in the field of constitutional electoral law, all of these are probably the components of this information work, which, probably, to a certain extent influenced the activity of our citizens, we see attempts of all kinds of provocations, informational and physical, against members of election commissions in the region. in your opinion, is this pressure exerted on some?