Belarus removes visa obstacles for election observers

WARSAW, 13 October 2004 - The Belarus Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reported to the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights that visa obstacles for its election observers for the country's 17 October parliamentary elections have been removed and that visas will be granted to observers from all participating States of the OSCE.

This should therefore remove the obstacles that occurred earlier in the week regarding observers from some countries, in particular from Greece and the Czech Republic. Accordingly this should pave the way for a regular observation of the election as planned.