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Zmitser Bandarenka: Resentment and Grievances against Government Are Yet to Mount

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Zmitser Bandarenka: Resentment and Grievances against Government Are Yet to Mount
PHOTO: Nasha niva

Yarmoshyna’s Central Elections Commission has announced a monstrous lie a la Goebbels.

It was said in the interview to charter97.org by a coordinator of European Belarus civil campaign Zmitser Bandarenka.

- How would you comment on the pseudo-elections in Belarus and their results?

- Lukashenka’s attempt to demonstrate that North Korean regime has been built in Belarus already, and that 90% of Belarusians have supported him, in a 90% turnout, has failed. I watched many news items at international TV channels – empty polling stations in Belarus, protest rallies on October 10 and 11 were demonstrated. It was told that the opposition boycotted this farce, and the figures announced by the Belarusian authorities are called laughable. So the dictator has failed to win affection of the West – the democratic world understands that the essence of Lukashenka’s regime has not changed.

Speaking about the consequences for the country, we have witnessed a detestable campaign of forcing Belarusians to vote, and in the first place, of dependent categories of population. And Yarmoshyna’s Central Elections Commission has certainly announced a monstrous lie a la Goebbels. But even remembering the elections in 2010, you can compare how many people there were at polling stations, and how many people attended them this time. Most Belarusians do not trust the figures announced by the government.

The main methods of the fraud are – reducing the voters’ lists by dozens of per cents, early voting and voting at home.

It’s true, the usurper has maintained his power, but I think that he wouldn’t hold out until the end of this term.

- Why do you think so? What are grounds for that?

- There are economic causes for that. Over the recent few years, despite forecasts and five-year plans (according to which the GDP was to grow by 10% annually, and by 70-80 % in five years), it has not happened, and the GDP of the country has even shrunk over the last 5 years.

Russia has rushed into several military conflicts, and is not able even to index pensions, so Lukashenka won’t have assistance. The Russian market is the key market for Belarus, and it has shrunk considerably, too.

And politically this operation of voting enforcing is to create even more problems for Lukashenka, than in 2010, as he had interfered in the lives of many people through pressure at working places, in universities, hostels. Resentment and grievances against the government are yet to mount, and the dictator is to face protests and discontent of wide sections of the population.

- On October 11 in the evening unpredictably people gathered in central Minsk. There were several hundreds of them. Why there were not many protesters?

- After elections people gather on the square after an appeal of presidential candidates. As there were no democratic candidates this time, and there were only double agents and a female candidate who represented special services, this protest rally could not be a massive one in principle. But the fact that those several hundreds of people gathered and marched along a symbolic path – from October Square to Independence Square – shows that the spirit of resistance had not been crushed.

I am proud that by friends and associates from Zubr movement and European Belarus campaign took part in the protest. The names of these people are to go down in history, like a rally of people on Red Square in 1968. That’s because the dictator had threatened to those people personally, and the country has not yet recovered from the repressions of recent years.

The political situation in Belarus is verging the situation of occupied Crimea, and the fact that there are still hundreds of people, who rallied on October 11, and thousands of people, who rallied on October 10, demonstrates that Belarus lives on, and the resistance to dictatorship is going to continue.

- Yesterday in the on air studio of Radio Svaboda Mikalai Statkevich brought to account those independent journalists and political analysts, who had been supporting the project of the authorities under the code name “elections” by creating media hype for this topic and, in fact, inducing people to participate in this farce. How could you comment that?

- I am fully supportive of Mikalai Statkevich. Unfortunately, independent journalists and political analysts participated in this campaign of raping the Belarusian nation, organised by the government. It was a campaign of compelling to participate in the “elections”, when people were threatened by dismissal, expelling from universities, crackdown on family members. And deplorably, many so-called independent journalists joined the campaign – they became touts for this process. They said: it’s not a big deal, try to put up with it, Putin with tanks is much worse probably. There have been so many commendatory articles about Lukashenka during this elections campaign, as never before. The things they did are beyond human morality. These people have a channel of influence on people’s minds, and their immorality does serious damage.

In this campaign I am proud of politicians who had been often criticized by both journalists and political analysts. Now Belarusian pro-democracy politicians have started a process of return to moral foundations – they have united in their non-recognition of this electoral farce. Many leaders of Belarusian parties, movements and organisations have come through prisons. Prison is cleansing. We know how special services’ officers manipulate people in prisons and penal colonies, and in the life of Belarus now we are witnessing the analogous processes to the processes in penal colonies.

- Yesterday opposition launched a campaign “Power to the People”. Will protest rallies be continued?

- I am sure that protests are to continue. It is to be connected to deterioration of the social and economic situation, and to the fact that it would be necessary to fight for amendment of the electoral legislation. The position of Mikalai Statkevich, Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu and Anatol Lyabedzka deserves respect as well. They have stated in case there are no changes to the Electoral Code, opposition would not participate in the parliamentary campaign.

Today Belarusian opposition regains its subjectness both inside the country, as they have demonstrated courage during this campaign, it has held several unsanctioned protest rallies, and abroad: as, despite all kinds of advisers and lobbyists of Lukashenka, leaders of democratic opposition advocate interests and subjectness of the Belarusian nation. It gives hope of changes in the situation in Belarus.

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