BELARUS HAS HER CHANCE: UNIQUE CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENT FROM THE WIDE CIVIL COALITION VLADIMIR GONCHARIK IS FINALLY REGISTERED :: Charter'97 :: News

The registration of presidential candidates took place today at 10a.m. in the Republic’s Palace. They registered four nominees for the high post – unique candidate from the wide civil coalition, leader of Federation of trade unions of Belarus Vladimir Goncharik, the “Regional Belarus” association leader Syamon Domash, Liberal-Democratic Party leader Sergei Gaidukevich and the incumbent Alexander Lukashenko. When the four lucky things were leaving the building they were welcomed at the exit by a hundred folks from democratic forces with flowers in their hands. These came to congratulate Goncharik and Domash with the successfully laid foundation of their campaigns. Alongside with them, there also showed up candidates’ colleagues from the “five team”: Pavel Kozlovsky, Mikhail Chigir, Sergei Kalyakin, accompanied by Mikhail Marinich and Alexander Yaroshuk.

As concerns the session itself, it went on without a hitch. The event attracted all top officials of the Republic of Belarus: Prime Minister Ermoshin, chairs of both “houses” of the “parliament” Popov and Voitovich, chair of the Constitutional Court Vasilevich, of the High Economic Court Boiko, of the Supreme Court Sukalo, chief of the presidential Administration Myasnikovich and also leaders of district, regional and municipal electoral commissions. Moreover, there were present heads of initiative groups of all four runners for the post.

The verification of authenticity of signatures, gathered in support of every candidate, manifested that Vladimir Goncharik got 121.041 valid signatures, whereas Syamon Domash – 160.077. The examination of their income declarations didn’t reveal any serious irregularities, except for Gaidukevich’s failure to mention his first son Vasily, who’s been living for a while in Germany together with Gaidukevich’s former spouse. Vladimir Goncharik encountered minor problems with the income declaration of his daughter, but this wasn’t considered a worthwhile pretext to deny him registration. As for Domash and Lukashenko, both were registered without any drawbacks found in their paperwork.

In course of the usual pre-election addresses of candidates Vladimir Goncharik underscored that “at last, the Belarusian nation has a choice.” He also thanked his supporters for their confidence in him.

Alexander Lukashenko looked irritated and furious. One of the possible root-causes for that could be his desire to act as the only candidate in the process. Moreover, the names of the candidates were announced in strict alphabetical order and Alexander Lukashenko would every time end up last. In his address to the audience Lukashenko tried hard to stick to the written text, but once or twice he allowed himself lyrical digressions, saying stuff like “presidential elections in Belarus won’t follow foreign scenarios”.

When the man was called to the podium, he explicitly refused to shake hands with Vladimir Goncharik and Syamon Domash, limiting himself to a short handshaking with Sergei Gaidukevich.