Mikalaj Statkevich: CEC Organized Provocation Against Me

The information about registaration of Mikalaj Statkevich’s initiative group was placed at the official website of the Central Elections Committee for a short time.

This information has been republished by some independent media.

We remind, on July 8 it became known that the CEC hadn’t registered the initiative group of ex-presidential candidate, Chairman of the steering committee for creating the Belarusian Social-Democratic Party “People’s Assembly” Mikalaj Statkevich, basing on the so-called “unexpired prior criminal conviction”.

On that day, the “People’s Assembly” claimed they would not participate in the “elections”, while Mikalaj Statkevich called on his colleagues in the Belarusian National Congress “not to take part in the electoral farce”.

The journalists of charter97.org addressed to Mikalaj Statkevich directly, asking to clarify the situation.

- How would you comment upon the fact that some independent media publish CEC’s information about registration of your initiative group?

- This is a clear provocation against me.

Representative of the “People’s Assembly” Siarhei Martsaleu attended the session of the district commission on July 8. He was announced the official decision about non-registration of my initiative group. There was even an argument in this regard.

After this, our party’s steering committee took the decision on non-participation in the so-called “elections”, and I addressed to my colleagues in the opposition with a corresponding statement.

And, this morning the CEC website published information that my initiative group had allegedly been registered.

We got to clarify this issue straightaway. I called the district commission and they confirmed my initiative group had not been registered. In the end, the CEC website withdrawn this information, and it’s not there anymore.

I am convinced this is an obvious provocation. They thought it would go unnoticed, and then they would tell the OSCE observers that Statkevich failed to collect a thousand signatures. Or maybe they just wanted to take revenge on me for my principle position and publish the information that contradicted my words.

I would like to thank the charter97.org journalists for professionalism – you were the first ones to call me in this regard to clarify the situation.