Candidates to be deprived of speeches on TV

Yarmoshyna promises to propose amendments to the electoral legislation after the “election”.

She made this statement today during an online conference on BelTA website. Lidzia Yarsmoshyna, the head of the Central Election Commission (CEC), says she plans to initiate some amendments to the electoral legislation. “I propose to waive the guaranteed TV speeches, presenting pre-election programmes and any static forms. Moreover, it costs a lot for the media,” she noted. The CEC head thinks per-election propaganda in Belarus should be carried out only as discussions. “Let it be debates, talk-shows, presenting programmes of organizations an parties that nominate their candidates,” Lidzia Yarmoshyna says. She stressed  all debating forms of election campaigning should be on a grant basis. But if a candidate wants to be a “talking head”, he should pay for this, the CEC head thinks. “I think debates would be useful in any case. I don't see something negative in them except for the rude conduct of some candidates and calls to boycott the election, which became a reason not to air the debate. But even some negative things didn't harm the election procedure,” the CEC chief summed up.

It should be reminded that all election campaigns held in Belarus under Alyaksandr Lukashenka regime were recognized non-free and unfair by the  international community. CEC head Lidzia Yarmoshyna was banned from entering the EU and the US for electoral frauds.