§ Mr. TrendTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the recent elections in Belarus. [142799]
§ Mr. VazThe Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)'s office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) sent a Technical Assessment Mission to Belarus at the time of the elections on 15 october. It concluded that the elections did not meet international standards for democratic elections, including those formulated in the 1990 Copenhagen Document of the OSCE. A parliamentary Troika drawn from the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assemblies of the OSCE and the Council of Europe reached similar conclusions. Her Majesty's Government endorse these assessments.