29 March 2024, Friday, 2:42
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Statkevich: Authorities should rewind election campaign

Statkevich: Authorities should rewind election campaign
Mikalai Statkevich

According to Mikalai Statkevich, the elections cannot be considered legitimate even before their start.

The authorities fabricated the list of candidates before the beginning of the presidential race, so the election campaign must be relaunched. Mikalai Statkevich, a former political prisoner and 2010 presidential candidate, said it in an interview with BelaPAN.

According to Statkevich, he and a number of democratic leaders think that the authorities “used all available resources to fabricate the list of candidates”. “They added some candidates who didn't collect the necessary number of signatures, but used their network of agents and natural ambitions of politicians to prevent the registration of a single candidate. Finally, they used their diplomatic channels to hinder the financial support of possible really opposition candidates,” the former political prisoner thinks.

In his opinion, the authorities showed that “elections don't exist” and society's reaction was “apathy”.

“Our common position is as follows: elections cannot be considered to be legitimate even before their start,” Statkevich emphasised. “We should demand that authorities rewind the election campaign and relaunch the electoral process from the every beginning, from the registration of initiative groups of candidates. I won't speak about reality of this demand, but we will try to achieve it. We'll probably just say to people that there are no elections and it's not worth voting. But now, during the campaign and until it doesn't happen what they plan, we should demand in public the cancellation of the registration of candidates and relaunching the electoral process.”

Statkevich is going to struggle to restore his civil and political rights to run in the relaunched presidential campaign if it takes place. He is convinced that he has the right to run in the elections because he “didn't commit any crimes”.

“I have people behind me, I have a rather high rating, my quite big initiative group supported me. My colleagues and I know how to lead Belarus out of the crisis. I demand the exercise of my right and the rights of the people who nominated me. I will struggle for my right, my inalienable right, using all available means that are legal in the context of international law rather than unclear Belarusian laws,” the released politician said.

The initiative group of Mikalai Statkevich included more than 1,700 people. The idea to nominate the political prisoner as a presidential candidate was supported by representatives of the organising committees to create the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Narodnaya Hramada) and Belarusian Christian Democracy party (BCD), as well as the Belarusian Electronics Trade Union, the United Civil Party, Young Front international association (the Czech Republic), the movement For Statehood and Independence of Belarus and Razam solidarity movement.

Representatives of the Central Election Committee said Statkevich's imitative group had no chances to be registered, because under article 60 of the Electoral Code, “citizens who have no right in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Belarus to take offices in state bodies and other state organisations in connection with their criminal convictions shall not be nominated as candidates for the presidency of the Republic of Belarus”.

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