BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

10/12/2007

Belarusian Popular Front Elects New Chairman

The opposition Belarusian Popular Front (BNF) on December 9 elected Lyavon Barshcheuski as its new chairman, Belapan reported. Nearly 250 delegates who met at the BNF convention on December 8 and 9 in Minsk failed to elect a new leader during the first day of the convention. Vintsuk Vyachorka and Ales Mikhalevich, two nominees for the post, each won about 50 percent of the vote, but neither managed to cross the 50 percent threshold required by the BNF's charter. Vyachorka and Mikhalevich then withdrew their candidacies and put forward Barshcheuski as a compromise candidate to avoid splitting the BNF. Barshcheuski was a lawmaker in the Belarusian legislature between 1990 and 1995 and an acting chairman of the BNF between 1995 and 1999. "We respect the principles of the coalition [of United Pro-Democratic Forces], but we care for the BNF first of all," Barshcheuski said after his election. "We want it to remain one of the symbols of the independence of modern Belarus," he added. AM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/12/3-cee/cee-101207.asp