Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the progress made by the Government of Belarus in implementing the recommendations of the final report of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights on the conduct of that country's presidential elections in October 2015.

​Some improvements were observed in the conduct of the September 2016 parliamentary elections in Belarus. Two opposition candidates were elected for the first time, but the elections remained a managed affair, key Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) recommendations remain outstanding and a number of long-standing systemic shortcomings remain.