BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
27/01/2009
Belarus: Presidential Candidates Submit Ballot Signatures
By Valentinas Mite
Today marks the last day of signature gathering in Belarus for politicians hoping to stand in the country's presidential elections on 19 March. At least four would-be candidates have passed the threshold of 100,000 signatures of support needed to have their prospective candidacies considered. What follows is a just over a week of stringent bureaucratic reviews by election committees that observers say are strongly stacked in favor of incumbent President Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
PRAGUE, 27 January 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Today is the final day for presidential hopefuls to collect the minimum of 100,000 signatures required to register as candidates in the 19 March vote.
Analysts and politicians have little doubt as to who will meet the requirements to run in the election.
The secretary of the central election commission, Mikolai Lazavik, told ITAR-TASS news agency he believes there will be four candidates left after the signatures are checked by local election committees.
He named President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, united opposition candidate Alyaksandr Milinkevich, Liberal Democratic Party leader Syarhey Hajdukevich, and Social Democratic leader Alyaksandr Kozulin.
Alyaksandr Klaskouski, who edits "Novosti," a Belarusian Internet publication, tells RFE/RL he agrees with the official: "I think it is likely that these people, plus the acting head of state [Lukashenka.] These people are Syarhey Hajdukevich, and two more opposition candidates -- Alyaksandr Milinkevich and Alyaksandr Kozulin."
Signature Gathering
Most opposition democratic parties are backing Milinkevich as their candidate in an election that many observers expect to be managed in favor of the current president.
Klaskouski says that state owned-media have already announced that Lukashenka was the most successful in the signature-gathering phase of the electoral process. Reports say he collected nearly 2 million signatures out of a total of 7 million potential voters.
"I think that finally there will be some two million signatures collected on behalf on the incumbent president. Anyway, it is five times more than in [the presidential campaign of] 2001," Klaskouski says.
Lukashenka gained the right to run for an unprecedented third term last year via a referendum he himself proposed. Since becoming president in 1994 he has left a legacy of destroying his opposition and independent media. Lukashenka is often referred to as "Europe's last dictator" in the West.
It might take up to 10 days for local election committees to check the signatures submitted by potential candidates, and then the election campaign starts.
Klaskouski says one month is too short a period for the candidates to start campaigning in earnest. Opposition candidates lack funds and access to the country's state-owned media: "It is less that a month [for the campaigning] and it is a very short span of time. Using any kind of contributions, especially some kind of sponsorship coming from abroad, is strongly punishable according to the Belarusian laws. Concerning airtime on TV, I think during the last election there were 2 1/2 hours [for each candidate,] now, if I am not mistaken -- only one hour."
Any journalist found to have discredited Belarus or its leadership faces up to two years in prison.
The Council of Europe this week called on Lukashenka not to obstruct the holding of a free and fair presidential election.
Candidates Withdraw
However, some candidates have already decided to withdraw without a fight.
The self-exiled leader of Belarus' Conservative Christian Party, Zyanon Paznyak, told RFE/RL yesterday he was leaving the race.
"On 18 January, the Central Election Commission made it clear to me in its ultimatum that signatures collected by my group would not be recognized," Paznyak said. "The daily unlawful detentions and arrests of my [signature] collectors, police reports being compiled and passed on to the Central Election Commission clearly show what they are preparing and what is going to happen."
This week, opposition candidate Syarhey Skrabets also withdrew in favor of Social Democratic leader Kozulin. He said a fair vote is impossible.
Earlier this month, Alyaksandr Voytovich, former chairman of the upper chamber of the Belarusian parliament, also decided against contesting the election.
Source:
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/01/37678ee1-7917-4870-b189-5fed8e90151b.html
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