Yarmoshyna: Statkevich’s initiative group would not be registered

The chairperson of the Central Election Committee, who had been banned entry to the EU, has stated that the political prisoner would not be registered as a presidential candidate.

To the question of “Radio Svaboda”, whether there is a probability that Mikalai Statkevich, a political prisoner, could be registered as a presidential candidate at the next election which is to be held in Belarus in 2015, the chairperson of the CEC Lidziya Yarmoshyna answered in the negative.

“He has absolutely no prospects for that. As long as he is convicted, we do not have a legal right to register him as a presidential candidate. Moreover, we do not even have a right to register his initiative group. And as his initiative group would not be registered, who will collect signatures in his support? Such actions, even if they could happen, are to become illegitimate immediately,” Yarmoshyna said.

The former presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich was sentenced to 6 years of restriction of freedom for alleged staging mass riots during the protest rally on December 19, 2010. The politician believes that it was a reprisal for harsh criticism of Lukashenka during the presidential elections campaign. For almost 3 years the political prisoner is kept in the closed prison in Mahilyou.

Mikalai Statkevich gave a positive response to the proposal of Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu to be nominated as a single oppositional candidate in the presidential election in 2015. It was stated by the wife of Statkevich, Maryna Adamovich.