‘European Belarus’ activists banned from election

In total, the elec­tion com­mis­sions reg­is­tered 14 peo­ple from the “Euro­pean Belarus” cam­paign. But there is a fear that many will be removed from the elec­tion.

“Four of our activists were removed from the com­mis­sion. They are Aksana Yushke­vich (Min­sk-Chkalausky con­stituen­cy # 96), Pavel Yukhnevich (Min­sk-Pushkin­sky con­stituen­cy # 103), Vol­ha Nikalaichyk (Min­sk-Uruch­s­ki con­stituen­cy # 107), Art­siom Charnyak (Min­sk-Par­ti­san­s­ki con­stituen­cy # 110). Many oth­ers have already received one warn­ing each. And it is like­ly that they will be removed,” Afna­hel told Bel­sat.

The rea­son for the with­draw­al of can­di­dates was their use of “mate­ri­als that are not relat­ed to the polit­i­cal cam­paign”. After sev­er­al warn­ings, the can­di­dates sim­ply get unreg­is­tra­tion.

“We see that the author­i­ties were afraid of the slo­gan “Enough of kolkhoz dic­ta­tor­ship!” Half of the warn­ings were because of this slo­gan. And the rest is just minor nag­ging,” says Afna­hel.

But despite becom­ing unreg­is­tered, the activists of the cam­paign con­tin­ue their pick­ets.

“Accord­ing to the Elec­tion Code, can­di­dates have the right to con­tin­ue the cam­paign if they have filed com­plaints to the high­est author­i­ty com­mis­sion. In Min­sk it is the city com­mis­sion. All four can­di­dates who were removed by the dis­trict com­mis­sions today appealed this deci­sion to the city com­mis­sion. There­fore, pick­ets were held yes­ter­day, today and will be held tomor­row,” added Afna­hel.

The elec­tion cam­paign began on Octo­ber 17, right after the reg­is­tra­tion of can­di­dates for deputies. This stage will con­tin­ue until the elec­tions.

Elec­tions to the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives will be held on Novem­ber 17.