BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

14/01/2007

Belarus to hold elections to local Councils

MINSK, January 14 (Itar-Tass) - Elections of deputies to local Councils will be held in Belarus on Sunday. A total of 6,525 polling stations will be opened in the republic. The citizens are to elect over 22,500 deputies and 1,581 local Councils will be formed on the voting results.

To monitor the elections are accredited 16,000 foreign observers.

As many as 23,791 hopefuls have been registered as candidates. "Women account for 44 percent of the registered candidates, 7.3 percent - young people under 30, 48.3 percent - deputies of local Councils of the current convocation; 17 Russian citizens permanently residing in the republic's territory have also been registered as candidates," secretary of the Belarussian Central Election Committee Nikolai Lozovik told Itar-Tass.

A candidate that wins the majority of votes will be considered elected. There are representatives of Belarussian opposition among the candidates. Meanwhile, two days before the elections, leader of the United Civil Party Anatoly Lebedko announced the withdrawal of his candidature, because he is certain that the elections will be falsified.

Almost 19 percent of the electorate have taken part in early voting. There are a total of seven million citizens that are eligible voters in the country. For the first time the local elections will be held in one round, which, in the view of specialists will allow Belarus to save over six billion roubles (about three million US dollars) and to form the authorised local Councils as soon as possible.

Source:

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11153790&PageNum=0

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