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Siarhiej Kalakin: Lukashenka scored under 35%

Siarhiej Kalakin: Lukashenka scored under 35%

The necessity of the second round was obvious.

At about 10 p.m. on 19 December 2010 in Nezalezhnasci Square in Minsk one of the coordinators of the “For Fair Elections” campaign Siarhiej Kalakin stated that the dictator had not won in the first round, camarade.biz reports.

Thus, according to the campaign’s observers, the exit polls showed that he scored 28% in Minsk and 35% in the regions. That is why there should have been a second round, Kalakin stated.

“We would trust these numbers since those were the data from our observers, who, for example, in Minsk were supported by facts and protocols”, - the leader of the Belarusian Leftists Party “Just World” said.

Even Jarmoshyna doesn’t know the actual results

At the same time, he emphasized, losing the elections in general and the necessity of a second round of elections – are two different things. “But it was possible at the moment to speak of Lukashenka’s not winning, just as of the necessity of a second round of the elections”, - the politician believes.

Did Lukashenka win in the end? Kalakin thinks, he did not.

“The situation in Belarus presumes that no one knows for sure, who won and who lost. The votes are simply not counted. I think, even Jarmoshyna does not know the actual numbers. At the very best those are known to the chairmen of the polling stations, who announced them. But they had most likely been given in advance the numbers, necessary for the authorities, - he said. – It will not be known, how Belarusian voters actually vote, until there is fair counting of votes. Up until that moment it is impossible to believe the data and statements, coming from politicians, including Lukashenka”.

If the authorities are convinced that they win, then there is nothing for them to hid, the leader of the Belarusian Left is convinced, because what only needs to be concealed is a crime. “The results of the votes count are kept in secret everywhere from everyone – from the members of electoral commissions, observers, media, even from selves. A member of an electoral commission only has the data on the stack of ballots, counted by him/her personally. But these numbers are unknown to any other commission member for they do not get announced, although the law requires a transparent vote count”, - he says.

Kalakin believes that people came in the Square for very different reasons. There were people of different ages, different political views, differently involved in politics, with different motivations. Someone came together with someone else, someone came for one’s convictions, someone – to actually stand for their votes.

Authorities have become weaker in three years

He believes that in the three years that have passed since the 2010 elections the authorities have become weaker: “If the opposition uses that, it will stop being called opposition and will become the authority, and the current authority will become opposition”.

At the same time the leader of the “Just World” party is convinced that the opposition has chances in the 2015 elections, because the situation in the country may change in a week, while there are still 1.5 year until the elections, even more. “Everything can change, including due to the actions of the authorities, opposition and many other factors, domestic and external alike”, - Kalakin said.

Certain changes are already taking place, he believes. In particular, the authorities do not follow the social contract – they have neither capabilities nor opportunities for that, since the economy is suffocating. Accordingly, the politician noted, “people’s support fades away proportionally to the worsening of the state of affairs in the economy and social sphere”. “I think there are fewer supporter of the incumbent authorities every day. I do not see any reserves for the situation to change”, - he said.

What to do?

However, it is not a fact that instead of authorities people will believe the opposition, Kalakin believes. “If I knew what to do for the population to believe the opposition, I would have done that and become the country’s president. Since it did not happen, I do not know that. I think just the way other oppositionists do. There are no simple answers to these questions. This is no mathematics, where two and two can be summed up. Results of politics is the combination of different circumstances, many of which completely do not depend on the participants of these or those historical and political events”, - he said.

Kalakin cannot assume what answers the multiple presidential candidates of 2010 would have to the question how to become a president. “If I ran as a candidate I would have answered. I did not run for president since I deemed it pointless. I did not see a victory plan that would allow me to become the president”, - he said.

Kalakin believes that the two opposition coalitions – Talaka and People’s Referendum “may agree on something and disagree on something”. “In a democratic society it is impossible to make everything agree. The desire to have a single leader and a single opposition is something from sci-fi. It is only a dictator, who can eliminate disagreements. In a democratic state people think on their own, and decide on their positions on their own. This is a normal process. I do not think that a single candidate is needed. Usually this does not strengthen the positions of democratic forces, but may even weaken them. The society is diverse. Some support one politician, others – another. When politicians unite, they may often lose their supporters. This is a complicated issue that does not have an unambiguous answer”, - he noted.

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