BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

14/01/2007

Belarus holds elections to local self-government bodies

MINSK, January 14 (Itar-Tass) - Belarus holds on Sunday elections to local bodies of self-rule. All in all, 24,000 candidates vie for 22,700 seats. The contest in the republic averages 1.1 candidates per one seat. The highest contest is in Minsk: three claimants for one seat, Itar-Tass learnt from secretary of the Central Election Commission Nikolai Lazovik.

Members of the opposition also participate in the present elections: they nominated over 200 candidates. On the other hand, leader of the United Civil Party Anatoly Lebedko said on Saturday that he withdraws his candidacy, since he is convinced that the voting results will be rigged up.

Russian citizens, permanently living in Belarus, also have the right to vote. Their number is around 70,000.

According to the secretary, the ahead-of-time voting was held between January 9 and 13: 24.9 percent of voters went to the polls. Lazovik noted that the highest turnout was registered in the Gomel Region: elections in some districts were already pronounced valid. More than seven million citizens were put on the election lists in the republic.

Lazovik explained that the elections would be pronounced valid if over 50 percent of registered voters go to the polls. He noted that the elections are being held in one round for the first time. The winner is to collect the greatest number of votes in comparison with his competitors.

Source:

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11154256&PageNum=0