Central Elections Commission’s official slams opposition over vote boycott plans
The Central Elections Commission’s official confessed to the European Radio for Belarus that he expressed his opinion on this matter as a political analyst. As for the position of the Central Elections Commission, it is even better for the staff when fewer candidates run for the seats.
“I have made my statement purely from the viewpoint of political science. Political parties are formed in order to struggle for power. Quite frankly, it is even better to have fewer people (as candidates) for the operation of the Central Elections Commission in a technical sense. The media reported that the Central Elections Commission feared the boycott. Come on, we do not fear anything! We are old enough to afford being not afraid of the boycott. Our working pattern will not change whatsoever”, Lazavik said.
However, he admits that it would be better for the sake of raising the electoral activity to have “all subjects of the electoral process” participate. When asked about the opposition’s claims that there would be no real fair elections anyway, Lazavik took on the offensive.
“Everyone makes judgments to the extent of his or her dissoluteness. The fact that a certain political party boycotts the elections while declaring that it advocates someone’s interests proves that this is nothing but demagogy. These leaders do not think about the interests of those in the society whose interests they pretentiously uphold or even the interest of their own party. They fight for their private interests. (They want) to remain an eternal opposition and use this status for building their well-being”.
Mikalai Lazavik shifted the responsibility for whether opposition members would be included into the lists of electoral commissions off to the “local governing bodies”. He said the commissions would be staffed with decent people. However, he would not predict whether local officials could find decent people amongst opposition supporters.
“Forming the electoral commissions is the subjective right of the local governing bodies. If there are decent people in the ranks of the opposition, they will be included into the electoral commissions. They have the right, but I am not going to predict how this right will be implemented. Similarly, I am not going to make forecasts about the election results”.
Stanislau Shushkevich, the leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada, confirmed to the European Radio for Belarus that his party was possibly to pull out from the elections. The party wrote to the Central Elections Commission, demanding to make the vote-counting procedure transparent. The letter from the Central Elections Commission’s chairperson Lidziya Yarmoshyna said in respond that the Central Elections Commissions had no intention to change anything in their operation.
“We have prepared a list of nominees. We have developed our electoral slogan. We are ready for the campaign. But if the vote-counting procedure remains the same, I would not rule out that we will not participate. We could pull out not because we are not fighting for power but because we don’t want to hit the wall, created with Russia’s support by Yarmoshyna, Lazavik and alike, with our foreheads”, Shushkevich said.
In the view of Mikola Statkevich who coordinates the European Coalition, the fight for the seats in the parliament has already been in full swing between district and regional officials and other government bodies. Every name is allegedly approved by the president personally. Although there are no hopes for victory, the “Europeans” are not going to pull out.
“Talking about the boycott, it is impossible to frustrate the elections. In this case, the remaining option is not to take part in the campaign from the very beginning. Another option is to pretend as if the elections are real and to participate. The third option is to try to do something during the campaign, bearing in mind that there will be no fair vote count. The position of the European Coalition is based on the third option. This campaign should be simply used to consolidate and unite the pro-democracy and pro-European support base and to secure their backing. This will be a huge step forward. The government gives $800 per candidate for campaign leaflets and 5 minutes on the television. Why couldn’t we take use of it?” Statkevich asks.
Neither Anatol Lyabedzka-led United Civic Party nor the Party of the Belarusian Popular Front is set to withdraw from the election campaign, the European Radio for Belarus has learned. Only the unregistered Youth Front stands firm to boycott the vote, according to the organization’s leader, Zmitser Dashkevich.
“The main reason why we are boycotting elections is because the outcome of the polls is known beforehand. It is already clear that the parliamentary election is a one-actor play. We are not going to take part in this game”, Dashkevich said.
