Volozhin Region
Executive Committee

More than 300 polling stations will be involved in the exit poll at the forthcoming presidential election in Belarus, Candidate of Science [Sociology], scientific adviser of the poll Igor Pinchuk told reporters on 28 July, BelTA has learned.

The number of polling stations was determined using scientific standards and taking into account international practices. “We rely on the formula that provides for sampling without replacement. Based on the total number of polling places, we calculated the necessary number of polling stations to be involved in the poll. Thus, over 300 polling stations across the country will be included in the poll,” the expert said.

About a thousand specialists will be involved in the study. “The number of respondents is to exceed 12,000 people,” the scientific adviser said.

The exit poll will be held throughout the day. Interviewers will sample a certain number of people her hour. “Everything will be done strictly in line with the instruction and within a specific time frame,” he noted.

The exit poll will be held 10-15 meters from a polling station. “This is important, as the international methodology provides for sampling people at a certain distance. An interviewer cannot approach every person who leaves a polling station,” Igor Pinchuk said.

The results of the study will be published after polling stations are closed. “Not earlier than 20 minutes after. This is an international standard,” the expert added.

“The forecast error we will strive to achieve is 2%. However, the error of up to 5% is acceptable,” the sociologist noted.

Igor Pinchuk recalled that an election exit poll is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited polling stations. “In other words, this is not a phone poll or an online poll, but a direct interview with a person who has already cast his/her ballot,” the expert said.

The exit poll presentation was held in Minsk on 28 July, during which journalists were also shown the uniform that interviewers will wear. The uniform will have logos of the Belarusian Committee of Youth Associations. The interviewers will have name tags confirming that they represent the Youth Laboratory of Sociological Studies. Every interviewer will wear a face mask and gloves.

The harvesting season, despite the fact that it started two weeks later in the Minsk region, is already called fruitful.

More than 200 tons of blueberries have been harvested! Organizations from the population also accept strawberries, currants, raspberries, cherries. There are more than fifty procurement points in the central region. Belarusian berries are also exported to the Baltics, Poland, Russia, Belarus reports 1.

Vadim Dvernitsky, Chairman of the Board of the Minsk Regional Union of Consumer Societies: "This year we have harvested 144 tons of garden strawberries, of which 67 tons are marketable berries. The harvesting season for blueberries this year came a little later, this is 2 weeks. Nevertheless we managed to procure 225 tons this year - 162 tons compared to the previous period. That is, we have grown today, despite the fact that our harvesting season for this berry began a little later. As for the mushrooms, over the past period we have prepared 3 tons."

In addition, vitamin products are processed on an industrial scale, sent to the distribution network and delivered to restaurants.

The exit poll at the presidential election in Belarus will be monitored by international and national experts, Director of the office of the Interstate Broadcasting Company Mir in Belarus Vladimir Pertsov told reporters in Minsk on 28 July, BelTA has learned.

According to Vladimir Pertsov, the office of the Interstate Broadcasting Company Mir in belarus addressed international experts to help monitor the exit poll. “We have sent invitations to many experts in a number of countries. These are the UK, Austria, Sweden, Poland, Russia, Armenia, and other states,” he said.

Some of them have responded already. The director of the office of the Interstate Broadcasting Company Mir in Belarus did not specify the countries. “We expect answers from all the invited experts and changes to restrictions in some European countries due to the coronavirus epidemic,” he explained. According to Vladimir Pertsov, the initiators of the exit poll hope that more experts will confirm their participation in early August.

Apart from international specialists, national experts will observe the exit poll, too.

The national exit poll is due on 9 August. The sociological research has been initiated by the office of the Interstate Broadcasting Company Mir in Belarus. The survey will be conducted by the Youth Laboratory of Sociological Studies of the Belarusian Committee of Youth Associations.

The Central Election Commission has published the information on the number of voters in Belarus and abroad – 6,844,932, BelTA learned from the CEC website.

According to the CEC, there are 984,601 voters in Brest Oblast, 849,472 in Vitebsk Oblast and 1,069,567 in Gomel Oblast. Grodno Oblast has 751,084 voters, Minsk Oblast - 1,142,043 and Mogilev Oblast - 801,825. Most of them are in Minsk - 1,241,021.

5,319 Belarusians are expected to vote abroad.

A total of 5,767 polling stations have been set up for the Belarus presidential election. Forty-four of them are outside the country. They will work in the Belarusian embassies and consulates in 36 countries: Austria, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belgium, Bulgaria, the UK, Hungary, Venezuela, Vietnam, Germany, Georgia, Israel, Spain, Italy, Kazakhstan, Canada, China, Cuba, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, the USA, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Finland, France, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Sweden, and Estonia.

The House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus scheduled the presidential election for 9 August. According to the timetable, early voting is scheduled for 4-8 August. The Central Election Commission shall sum up results of the election on 19 August at the latest. If the second round of the election is necessary, it will take place within two weeks of the first one, that is on 23 August.

An increase in the unemployment rate has been prevented in Belarus in such a complicated period of time. Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko made the statement on the air of the Belarusian TV channel Belarus One, BelTA has learned.

Roman Golovchenko said: “The main task we had to accomplish in this period is to prevent a cascade loss of jobs, the closure of companies, prevent people from simply losing everything. About 60,000 people had to deal with part-time employment while about 50,000 people had to work fewer days per week. The process has been reversed since then. The situation is getting back to normal. Enterprises are getting back to normal while workers are getting back to working normal hours.”

In his words, attempts to fire workers for no good reason are high on the agenda. “The president always enquires about unjustified employment terminations, particularly in the private sector. I can confidently say that we've prevented those. The state labor inspectorate has inspected virtually 700 large and medium-sized companies and their observance of labor laws. The work continues. We are now monitoring about 200 privately owned small and medium enterprises. Rights of the workers have been violated only in a handful of cases. This is why the employment situation is absolutely manageable,” the prime minister noted.

Speaking about salaries, Roman Golovchenko stressed that the average salary in the country rose by 7.8% in H1 2020 while real disposable income of the population amounted to 105.4%. As for individual categories of workers (for instances, teachers in kindergartens), whose salaries are below Br1,000 for now, the prime minister stated that the head of state is looking closely into the matter. “I've told the head of state that we manage to keep public sector salaries at 80% of the country's average salary at least. By 2025 we should raise the ratio of salaries in two large public sector worker categories – healthcare workers and pedagogues – to 150% and 100% of the country's average salary respectively. We are on schedule so far,” Roman Golovchenko added.

The Transport and Communications Ministry of Belarus is waiting for a response of the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) regarding the resumption of air travel between Belarus and Russia, BelTA learned from the press service of the Transport and Communications Ministry of Belarus.

“The Aviation Department of the Transport and Communications Ministry held consultations with Rosaviatsia and sent a letter to Rosaviatsia suggesting resumption of air travel. The Russian side has not responded yet,” the press service noted.

The ministry did not specify when flights might be resumed, as no agreement has been reached with Russia yet. “On our part, we are ready to resume air travel between our countries,” the press service noted.

A reminder, Russia announced a decision to resume some international flights from 1 August. International flights were grounded on 27 March to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The list of destinations will initially be limited to Tanzania, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

On 24 July Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko is set to go on a working trip to Pukhovichi District where he will inspect the 5th Special Operations Brigade in Maryina Gorka, BelTA reports.

The head of state will be told about the structure, staff and main tasks of the brigade. The president will also see the weapons and gear of the special forces units and visit the museum of history and military glory of the brigade. After that the head of state will meet with the staff of the brigade.

During the trip, Aleksandr Lukashenko is set to visit the Aquamarine swimming pool in Maryina Gorka and discuss the prospects of building more social infrastructure facilities in the region.

The 5th Special Operations Brigade was established in Maryina Gorka in 1963. The brigade fought in Afghanistan in 1985-1988 (the 334th separate special operations unit was established for this purpose). In the early 1990s the brigade performed the government's task to restore order in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic.

In September 2002 Aleksandr Lukashenko presented a new banner and a letter of commendation to the brigade. Since May 2007 the brigade has been part of the special operations forces of the Armed Forces of Belarus.

The brigade is meant to perform intelligence and reconnaissance tasks both in the enemy rear and at home.

The coronavirus pandemic helped expose the best qualities of the Belarusian healthcare system, Healthcare Minister Vladimir Karanik told reporters while inspecting the new building of the Borisov Central District Hospital on 23 July, BelTA has learned.

“All healthcare professionals regardless of their specialization – pulmonologists, surgeons, emergency doctors – joined this fight and performed their duty with exceptional professionalism and responsibility,” Vladimir Karanik said.

A series of events to honor frontline healthcare workers started at a district level on 23 July. “These are more than 2,000 healthcare professionals, including nurses, nurse's aides, doctors, department heads; they will get the rewards they have deserved,” the minister added.

Vladimir Karanik expressed gratitude to absolutely all healthcare workers for keeping the healthcare system running in that difficult time. None of the specialized national research centers was re-purposed, which means that the primary care performed all its tasks amid the pandemic.

At present the majority of hospitals across the country is returning to their usual operation mode.

According to head of the Main Healthcare Directorate of Minsk Oblast Natalya Boyarskaya, the region's frontline healthcare workers received a total of Br20 million in bonuses.

Vladimir Karanik also recalled the instruction of the head of state to provide healthcare workers with the most advanced equipment and decent working conditions.

An agreement to launch joint master's and postgraduate programs was signed by Belarusian State University (BSU) and Dalian University of Technology (DUT).

The heads of the two universities Andrei Korol and Guo Dongming signed the document during an online meeting, BelTA learned from the the press service of Belarusian State University.

The document provides for strengthening and expanding bilateral cooperation, joint training of specialists at the second stage of education and personnel of highest qualifications. The programs will be running at the joint Chinese-Belarusian DUT-BSU Institute in Dalian, China. The working language of the programs is English, the additional languages are Russian and Chinese,” the press service informed.

Graduates will receive diplomas of the two universities. Postgraduates will also have an opportunity to get the Candidate of Sciences diploma after a successful theses defense and the corresponding approval by the Higher Attestation Commission of Belarus. Training of postgraduates will strengthen the scientific potential of the two countries through joint coordination of scientific activities. The agreement provides for dual guidance of thesis research by scholars of the two universities.

Belarusian State University and the Dalian University of Technology have been cooperating since 2007. Over the time the two universities have signed agreements on sci-tech and education cooperation. The Institute of Belarusian State University and the Dalian University of Technology was set up in China in 2017 and the Belarusian-Chinese DUT-BSU Institute in Belarus in 2019. Over 300 students from Belarus and China are currently studying in the joint institutes.

Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei will pay a working visit to Latvia on 24 July, the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on its Facebook page, BelTA has learned.

In Riga, Vladimir Makei will hold talks with his Latvian counterpart Edgars Rinkevics.

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko was expected to visit Latvia in April. However, due to the outbreak of coronavirus, the visit was postponed.

In March, Aleksandr Lukashenko and Latvian President Egils Levits had a telephone conversation at the initiative of the Latvian side. The heads of state discussed the main aspects of bilateral cooperation, mainly trade and economic cooperation. The neighboring countries are primarily interested in cargo transportation, energy transit, industrial cooperation.

At the end of June, Aleksandr Lukashenko congratulated Egils Levits on the 65th birthday. The president said he expects to continue working together to strengthen good-neighborly relations, which should be facilitated by the planned high-level contacts. “I hope that we will be able to meet in the hospitable Riga soon to discuss ways to deepen cooperation between Belarus and Latvia,” the Belarusian head of state stressed.