PACE Delegation Meets Five United Democratic Candidates :: Charter'97 :: News

The EC Parliamentary Assembly began the second day in Minsk with a lunch with the five united candidates from the wide civil coalition– Vladimir Goncharik, Syamon Domash, Sergey Kalyakin, Pavel Kozlovsky and Mikhail Chigir, and with the leader of Goncharik’s election campaign Vassily Leonov.

As Pavel Kozlovsky reported to BelaPAN, the candidates explained their problems. In particular, all the five informed that each one submitted to the CEC more than hundred thousand signatures, but the CEC concluded that only two –Domash and Goncharik - had crossed this threshold. All candidates confirmed their determination to cooperate with the single candidate and to back him.

In this exchange much attention was paid to the problems of contacts between opposition and authorities. A relevant reason was a Lukashenko’s address during the consultation with the heads of executive bodies on Belarusian TV in the evening of July 31. In opinion of the ‘five’, the incumbent demonstrated one more time that he had started his agitation long ago. At the same time Belarusian TV and other state mass media pour tons of filth on the other candidates. And there is no opportunity to give a talk on radio or appear in print with refutation the misinformation.