Karatkevich accused of falsifying signatures, she calls it 'foul play'
Six months after the presidential election Yaraslau Bernikovich, coordinator of the signature collection for Tatsiana Karatkevich in Minsk, has accused her headquarters of fraud.
Allegedly, only 14 thousand signatures were collected for her in the capital, while the CEC received 55 thousand.
"Last year, I worked in the "Tell the Truth" and I had certain obligations. Why am I saying this now? It should have been said at some point. I worked as coordinator in Minsk and I know exactly the number of signatures collected," explains Yaraslav Bernikovich.
He also published photocopies of signatures. According to journalists that are in these lists, signatures can be dated 2010. Others say that they are in the lists, but never signed anything.
Tatsiana Karatkevich has called the statements of Bernikovich "foul play" and linked them with his participation in the opposition Congress, which was held in Minsk Yanka Kupala Park on May 15.
"We submitted all the signatures that we had collected. They were as many as was recorded by the CEC. Bernikovich left "Tell the Truth" after the New Year. This is a usual foul play by the opposition. Yaraslau was one of the organizers of the Congress held in Minsk Yanka Kupala Park. I think this is linked together. Moreover, your journalist came to our office, and we submitted all the scans of signatures," said Karatkevich.
Euroradio journalists indeed checked the collected signatures for this candidate. But they were unable to see all the signatures. The journalist photographed just a few. However, they turned out to be real.
Signatures of Tatsiana Karatkevich were also to be checked by the civil organization with representatives of other opposition organizations. They were also not shown anything. The campaign head Andrei Dzmitryieu said that he does not have all the copies.
"We have developed an approach that enabled to objectively assess the situation, but this should involve access to all the photocopies of signatures. The headquarters refused to submit signatures," describes the situation initiator of the civil committee Yury Hubarevich.
It turns out people tried to check the Karatkevich signatures at least three times: the Central Election Commission, journalists, civil commission. Will there be the fourth time? We'll see.
