Ivan Amelchanka goes on hunger strike in jail

Ivan Amelchanka, who was sentenced to 12 days in custody, appealed against a refusal to register his initiative group in the Central Election Commission.

Having been placed  in the coldest cell in the detention facility, Ivan Amelchanka went on hunger strike. He shares the cell with homeless people. Ivan does not have a sleeping bag. He talked to the detention facility head and the latter said it was his personal decision not to give a sleeping bag to Amelchanka. Nevertheless, Ivan remains optimistic, his friend Pavel Vinahradau says.

Being behind bars Amelchanka appealed against refusal to register his initiative group.

“On July 19, 2012, constituency election commission of the Kalinouski constituency No. 108 refused to register an initiative group to gather signatures for nominating me a candidate for the House of Representative of the National Assembly of Belarus. The commission explained its decision with the fact that I did not hand in the application personally, but sent it by mail. Article 65 of the Electoral Code of Belarus does not say an applicant must personally visit the election commission to submit an application for registration of an initiative group.

I'd like to remind a precedent in 2010, when aspirant for presidency Alyaksandr Lukashenka filed a registration application to the CEC via head of his initiative group Alyaksandr Radzkou. Nevertheless, the initiative group was registered. I think this rule can be applied to my initiative group.

In view of the above I think the decision of the constituency election commission on refusal to register is illegal and does not comply with article 65 of the Electoral Code of Belarus,” zapraudu.info cites the appeal.