Vital Rymasheuski: Boycott has really taken place

The politician is convinced that the Independent Institute of Socio-Economic and Political Studies (IISEPS) had to report the numbers under threat of legal persecution.

“Those who have been released from the regime’s jails – KGB prison, reformatories and other – are very eloquent about what’s happening in Belarus. Many of them have to leave the country. Those who tell the truth have to emigrate, those who keep their mouths shut can stay in Belarus,” co-chair of the party Belarusian Christian Democracy Vital Rymasheuski told charter97.org.

According to the politician, the IISEPS had to publish the numbers that the regime wants to see; under threat of a legal persecution. “Head of the Independent Institute of Socio-Economic and Political Studies Aleg Manaieu is in Belarus. It is criminal to conduct independent polls in our country. And in this regard, it is easy to explain the evaluation given by the IISEPS to the recent “elections” and to the presidential “elections” 2010, when the IISEPS claimed that 51% of the Belarusians had voted for Lukashenka. Personally I can understand Manaieu.”

As a matter of fact, independent centers of social studies give completely different numbers, Vital Rymasheuski pointed out. “The Axiometrical Research Laboratory NOVAK located abroad reports that the boycott has succeeded, while the “elections” have failed. All independent observers said that the “elections” had failed.”

The successful boycott of the “elections” doesn’t depend on the IISEPS’ evaluation, the politician emphasized. “The boycott of the “elections” has really taken place. And it doesn’t depend on how analysts and social scientists who live in Belarus evaluate the “elections”.

We remind that on 22 October the Independent Institute of Socio-Economic and Political Studies reported that only 9,6% of voters had boycotted the “elections”, and that more than 50% of voters came to voting stations. Nevertheless, the opposition and independent observers claim that the boycott of the “elections” has happened.