Henadz Fiadynich: We Are To Come Out With Common List And Common Message

The opposition is consolidating ahead of the “parliamentary elections” on September 11.

Chairman of the independent trade union of radio-electronic industry Henadz Fiadynich said that to charter97.org.

– What is your impression of the yesterday’s meeting of the standing council of the democratic institutions?

– It’s very positive. We have done much to create a common list of the democratic forces for the “parliamentary elections.” First, all the parties and groups had their own lists: the coalition of the United Civil Party and the Belarusian Christian Democracy had its own, the BPF had one as well, the Left and the Congress of Democratic Forces had their lists, too.

It has been difficult to form a classic list on the principle of “one candidate – one district.” So we came to the conclusion that this might not be worth doing in all the districts: if there are those who are willing to go and talk to people, we can provide coordination of actions. I think the Democratic candidates will be able not to interfere with one another, and to support and complement each other. At that, there will be only one person from the democratic forces in some of the districts.

The most important thing we have agreed on is as follows: each candidate, in addition to his own program, will get a common message developed by the united opposition. This, in my opinion, is the greatest progress in the uniting of opposition forces ahead of the nearest “parliamentary” campaign. And not the hardline approach to drawing up the common list.

As practice shows, the authorities will try to exclude part of the democratic candidates, therefore the principle of “one candidate – one district” might not work. Therefore, there won’t be a big problem if several opposition candidates cooperate in the same district.

– Why does the opposition take part in the “parliamentary” campaign, though there haven’t been any changes done in the Electoral Code since the past “elections”?

– It is clear that there are no “elections” in Belarus, and there won’t be any in the near future. But we have to get our message across to people, what the democratic forces think about the crisis affecting the country and the ways out of it. And here all the opposition candidates will have a similar program.

And it’s very positive that we managed to agree on that at the council of democratic institutions. I believe that compromise and common ground will be found on all the technical aspects relating to the opposition’s coming out with the common list and the common message in the program at these “elections.”

Next week, on May 3, we will go over the mechanism of action coordination at the "elections". Also there will be resolved the question of how many people will represent the opposition in each district. This will be done by a working group of experts, who will consider each district and the opposition candidates’ potential.