National Bank President Urges Bankers to Electioneer for Incumbent :: Charter'97 :: News

Petr Prokopovich, head of the National Bank of Belarus (NBB), on August 24 urged banking workers in the Gomel region to electioneer for Belarus current ruler Alexander Lukashenko.

Speaking to banking managers and industrial directors at a conference in Gomel, Mr. Prokopovich said,"You, banking workers, must think hard rather than take a wait-and-see approach, and start working with customers and the population now. You must show the true colors of our future. If the opposition wins, there will be a liberal economy, uncontrolled by the government, and political instability. We cannot engage in chaos in politics."

Mr. Prokopovich said that banking workers must explain customers the value of stability achieved in the last five and a half years.

He stressed that banking workers should get it across to people that "the path we have chosen is the right one."

"The victory of the incumbent president should be clear. Fifty-five or sixty percent is good, but not enough. The victory should be persuasive to the West," he said.

Mr. Prokopovich made the statement at a conference on a bank system reform concept for 2001-2010. The gathering was attended by the chief executive officials of the Gomel region and Gomel, Alexander Yakobson and Leonid Barabanov, and Leonid Glukhovsky, Mr. Lukashenko’s campaign coordinator in the region.