Did "NOTA" voters save election in Minsk?
The data of the official protocols from polling stations confirm that election would have been invalid without "No to All"s.
5%, 7%, 10% — this is the number of Minskers who voted against all candidates at different polling stations. And this data has been provided not by the observers - these are the numbers indicated in the official protocols.
"I think that those who voted against all the candidates were the students, who live in dormitories. They were forcibly sent to the polling stations to vote", -says Victar Ivashkevich, who passionately urged for the boycott this year.
Alongside with that, Victar Ivashkevich said that voting against all candidates is not a boycott. This is participation in the election, not ignoring it.
However, such big number of people who voted against all candidates alerted me. I took the final protocols of the election committees, a calculator, and counted what would have happened if they had stayed at home. The results were quite funny - the election would have been invalid at three polling stations out of four.
Another pro-boycott politician Vital Rymasheuski says that NOTA voting means mistrust to the authorities.
