Charter'97 :: News :: 09/09/2001

White-red-white banner is flying over the Palace of Culture, where the center of the resistance to the regime has been formed. As you remember, yesterday night the unique candidate from wide public coalition, his headquarters and around 200 supporters barricaded themselves inside the building, protesting against monstrous falsifications and demanding the second round of voting.

Some 80 journalists turned up at the Palace of Culture, where the unique candidate and his 200 followers barricaded themselves. Representatives of leading world news agencies and TV channels, reporters of various editions, Russian and Belarusian correspondents came to the Palace in order meet with the members of the headquarters of the unique candidate from wide public coalition and learn of Vladimir Goncharik’s further plans and hypothetical situation development for the next couple of days.

200 brave men, who barricaded themselves in the Palace of Culture, are trying to prevent police threat through some training exercise – they clasp their hands together with full might, so that if the law-enforcers break in, the couldn’t disperse them. The people are regularly brought coffee and food. Vladimir Goncharik is supposed to shortly join their ranks.

The President’s aide Posokhov, answering the question of “Belarusian Business Newspaper”, if the authorities are ready that OSCE will not recognize the results of the ballot, used four-letter words: “Well, …, who the f… needs your OSCE? Let OSCE mind its own business, sort things out in Macedonia and so on. The thing that troubles us lest of all is what they will say”.

Mass media reporters are streaming toward the Palace of Culture. Everyone is waiting for something. Vladimir Goncharik called on people to come to the Oktyabrskaya square at 10a.m., while he plans to stay in the Palace till morning. The unique candidate insists on holding the second round of voting.

Around 200 people are left in the Palace of Culture – women and underage were driven out upon Vladimir Goncharik’s request. The remaining men are barricading the entry doors. The law-enforcement contingent is being drawn to the Palace. Valdimir Goncharik left the place but will return there in one hour time. His trustee Mikhail Chigir is there with the protesters.

Vladimir Goncharik determined to stay overnight in the Trade Union Palace of Culture on the Oktyabrskaya street. The whole headquarters of the unique candidate is there with him. Vladimir Goncharik told all people under 18 years of age to leave the Palace. Anyone, who’s older than that age, will stay in the Palace till morning.

According to the information, supplied by the observer from Pervomaisky district of Minsk, who was present during the vote tabulation process, out of 1996 voters, who cast their ballots there, 921 voted for Lukashenko, 871 – for Goncharik, 73 – for Gaidukevich. This proves the necessity to hold second round of elections.

Touching upon the work of Russian TV channels in Belarus, Lukashenko said at the press conference held late at night on September 9 that “it is most likely that will not tolerate the presence of the channel TV-6 in our country”.

Vladimir Goncharik called on those, who came tonight to central Minsk square, to reassemble there again at 7a.m. in order to listen to the final results of parallel vote count. He also urged men to stay on the square until the victorious morning.

UNIQUE CANDIDATE’S HEADQUARTERS CLARIFIED THE RESULTS OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS: 7% VOTED FOR GAIDUKEVICH, AROUND 46% FOR ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO AND 40,2% - FOR GONCHARIK. THEREFORE, THE ELECTION OUTCOMES REQUIRE THE SECOND ROUND OF ELECTIONS.

Unique candidate from wide public coalition Vladimir Goncharik and head of his election campaign Vassily Leonov entered the Palace of Culture. There happened a short clash with police, but they finally let the people inside. Over a thousand young opposition members followed Goncharik and Leonov.

Unique candidate from wide public coalition Vladimir Goncharik is holding a press-conference right on the steps to the Palace of Culture on the Oktyabrskaya square of Minsk. He declared that he intends to demand the second round. From throughout the country come reports about terrific elections falsification. Lukashenko is believed to have gained almost 100% votes. In reality, the situation is almost opposite. The unique candidate stated that they shouldn’t heat up tensions in the country and that one can walk his way towards victory by non-violent means. This night Vladimir Goncharik will go for another press-conference in Minsk.

In course of the vote tabulation at the electoral station #6 of the Moskovsky district of Minsk observers witnessed a weird scene. It turned out that the number of votes exceeded the amount of ballot sheets, handed out by the commission. 2195 voters cast their ballots, while the commission only issued 2108.

Over two thousand young people, shouting “Goncharik!”, convinced the unique candidate, who already left the square, to return back. Vladimir Goncharik intends to hold press-conference at midnight right on the steps to the Trade Union Palace. The masses keep shouting “Long Live Belarus!” and waiving flags. The tensions are running high for there arrives information on awful falsifications by CEC.

OTPOR resistance activists from Yugoslavia expressed their solidarity with the protesters in central Minsk. They called right from Belgrade and expressed confidence that Belarusians would undoubtedly overcome in their struggle with dictatorship, just as it happened in their country last year. The words of their Slav brothers instilled greater hope in the hearts of the courageous people, who took to Minsk streets tonight to stand for the common victory. Member of the electoral commission of Sovietsky district of Minsk addressed the crowd, claiming that at his polling station Vladimir Goncharik won and that the results announced by CEC are but insolent lies.

Secretary of the Mogilev regional electoral commission Ludmila Makarenko in rude form refused to tell the observer, accredited with the commission, Sergey Obodovsky and BDG correspondent about the time of the commission’s session to sum up the results in Mogilev region. Moreover, Obodovsky’s complaint over mass violations of elections was declined. Later the complaint was accepted by deputy chair of the regional commission Vladimir Belonogov. BDG correspondent was told that the session of the regional commission to total the election results would take place sometime on September 10.

If the election results will be rigged, tomorrow the all-Belarusian strike starts, the member of the organizational committee of Charter`97 Dmitry Bondarenko said at the meeting in Minsk in the Kastrychnitskaya Square.

At the moment the voters turnout results are announced at the square. Coordinators of “Independent Observation” claim that they will do their best to voice the results as soon as it is possible. 2000 young people stated their decisiveness not to leave the square. They shout “Victory is ours!”, “Dictator go away!” and “Long Live free Belarus!”. The general atmosphere is relaxing and enthusiastic.

A few thousand people remain on the square. They are very excited, shouting “Long Live Belarus!”, “We will overcome!”, “Lukashenko Get Away!”, “Victory is ours!”. Flags are flying and the music is playing. Nobody leaves the place, while more people are coming.

Civil initiative “Independent Observation” will come up with results of the parallel vote tabulation Monday at 7a.m., said the initiative’s coordinator Ales Belyatsky. This was caused by the regime’s unprecedented steps, aimed at the disruption of work of independent observers – “IO” cell phones were disconnected, so was the e-mail. Under such tough circumstances it is extremely hard to sum up the outcomes, so the final announcement is delayed by a few hours.

The regime stepped up unprecedented fabrication of election results. Nobody expected such insolent lies even from Lukashenko. CEC keeps claiming that Lukashenko collected almost 100%. CEC chairwoman announced preliminary voting results on 8.30p.m.: Gomel region (0,71% ballots counted): Gaidukevich – 3,21%, Goncharik – 10,31%, Lukashenko – 74,92%; Mogilev region (0,82%): Gaidukevich – 0,78%, Goncharik – 1,42%, Lukashenko – 96,36%; Minsk city (1,12%): Gaidukevich – 2,78%, Goncharik – 12,85%, Lukashenko – 77,41%. One can foretell with great degree of certainty that neither Europe, nor USA will recognize the elections as legitimate, which automatically turns Belarus into first European rogue state. Nor will the Belarusian nation trust these figures, for people know that they voted against Lukashenko.

At the moment the atmosphere at the square is festive and optimistic. Everyone is in high spirits, people are smiling and more are coming over to them. Many came to the square with their families, despite poor weather conditions. Modern music is playing, which raises people’s mood even more. The speakers call on voters to remain there until final victory.

Only at 9 p.m. the turnout for 8 p.m., the time of polling stations closure, was known. So, according to the CEC information, 6753 thousands voters attended the polling stations, or 82,55 percent of the citizens of Belarus.

The telephones in the press-center of the civil initiative “Independent Observation” in Minsk and Gomel, as well as in the “Viesna” human rights center’s office in Minsk, which were promptly and efficiently providing information about monstrous violations of the electoral code the whole day today. The telephones, including mobile ones, were cut off at 7 p.m. Only mobile phones of the monitors from Minsk started working at this moment, but nobody knows for how long. The local phones do not operate at all. There is no communication with Gomel, Grodno, Vitebsk and Mogilyov. The web-side and e-mail of the IO were disconnected in the daytime. So the authorities hinder the independent votes count, which results van reveal the outrageous amount of falsifications by the authorities.

United Civil Party leader called upon people to stand at the square until 10a.m., when they will be joined by folks from the regions to celebrate victory together. 13th Supreme Soviet deputy and Charter’97 organizing committee member Ludmila Gryaznova also pleaded with people to remain on the square for as long as possible. The number of people keeps increasing.

Unique candidate from wide public coalition informed the people on the square that there already started the vote tabulation process at the Belarusian polling stations. Goncharik expressed his confidence in the ultimate victory and, urging the people to celebrate victory together, exclaimed: “Our power is in unity!”. Goncharik’s political office members also address the nation. Goncharik takes the floor over and over again.

Around 5 thousand gathered this moment on the Oktyabrskaya square in central Minsk. The floor was first given to the unique candidate from wide public coalition Vladimir Goncharik, who thanked everyone for their coming and called upon them to wait for the victory together. White-red-white flags and ZUBR banners are waiving over the crowd. Meantime, the rain slows down. More folks show up on the square. They keep coming in an unceasing procession.

The masses, assembled on the Oktyabrskaya square, are welcomed by the unique candidate from wide public coalition Vladimir Goncharik. The people greet him with loud applause and rounds of ovations. They shout “Goncharik!”. Their voices are echoed throughout the city. More new people are flooding towards the square in groups.

Some 3 thousand people, despite the shower and cold weather, gathered at the moment on the Oktyabrskaya square in Minsk. The folks are crowding at the steps leading to the Trade Union Palace and occupy part of the square. All of them loudly shout “Long Live Belarus!” and “Goncharik!”. The number of action participants keeps growing. The people are streaming in big groups to the city’s central square along the Skarina prospect.

7 ZUBR activists were taken off board the train on their way from Krichev to Minsk. In Krichev itself they apprehended 2 movement’s activists, who still remain in detention. Therefore, police prevents the coming of folks from the regions to Minsk, where they plan to assemble on the Oktyabrskaya square in order to wait there for the ballot results.

Seven activists of opposition were detained today by KGB agents on charges of disseminating flyers of the so-called “Belarusian liberation army”, calling upon the folks to stream towards the presidential administration with weapons in hands. These flyers are but a provocation, concocted by the special services themselves, who are seeking to instill fear in hearts of those, who plan to come to the Oktyabrskaya square tonight. In reality no such liberation army exists as such. Nonetheless, Grodno KGB apprehended “Pagonya” editor-in-chief Nikolai Markevich, the newspaper reporter Pavel Mazheiko, opposition activists – Valentina Askerka, Svetlana Nekh, Evgeny Klimov and Sergei Malchik. Following a five hour long KGB interrogation they set free Malchik and Nekh. The rest remain in KGB custody.

Since our site is blocked from the Belarusian Internet users we remind you how you can receive information about the course of elections in Belarus. There are two ways for this.
The first way is the following: look at http://charter97.b0x.com . There the copy of the news line is placed.
Second way is to reach the site through sites-anonymizers, that conceal that you are located in Belarus. The simplest addresses are:
http://anon.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.charter97.org or
https://www.safeweb.com/o/_i:http://66.33.38.150
Be with us! At 20.05 we start on-line coverage from the center of Minsk, where the single democratic candidate Vladimir Goncharik will wait for the election results together with the people.

Belarusian CEC declared at 6.40p.m. that the voters’ turnout constituted by 6p.m. 75,2% (with Minsk beating its own attendance record with 66,7%), meaning one thing – that Lukashenko had blown it. The critical mass of those, who are dissatisfied with his policy and who came to vote him out, overshadowed the stable number of Lukashenko’s supporters. Many independent sociologists and experts predicted that long in advance. With the turnout being at the 70% level one can state with great degree of certainty that Lukashenko is losing to the unique candidate with 10% gap. If so, the democratic candidate will get roughly 54%, while the incumbent – only 42%. With 80% turnout Lukashenko suffers a crushing defeat, gathering only 37%. Now Lukashenko either has to confess his defeat or launch total falsification (which doesn’t help much either).The unique candidate Vladimir Goncharik will come to the Oktyabrskaya square at 8.05p.m. in order to celebrate his victory together with the nation.

Today the Belarusian special services agents halted the operation of the mobile TV complex of the European broadcasting company. EBC sputnik satellite was installed in Minsk near the “Belarus” hotel. All foreign TV companies sought to transmit their coverage via it. At around 1p.m. KGB officers turned up there and demanded from journalists a license to operate on the Belarusian soil. EBC representatives explained that they have the proper license, but yesterday the Ministry of communication required that they submit it to them. On the weekend it is not possible to get it back from them. Referring to the absence of license, KGBists halted the operation of the TV complex until Monday. Therefore, the only way by means of which foreign correspondents may shoot reports is state-run television BT and MIR TV-company. However, they have no technical capability to transmit all signals. Therefore, the work of most foreign channels is almost paralyzed.

OCCURRED AT AROUND 17 O’CLOCK MINSK TIME. APPROXIMATELY 30 METERS AWAY FROM THE USIS BUILDING WENT OFF AN UNDETECTED DEVICE, WHOSE COMPOSITION INCLUDED REAL TROTYL. THERE FORMED A CRATER ON THE PLACE OF THE EXPLOSION. NO HUMAN CASUALTIES WERE REPORTED. SO FAR THERE HAVE BEEN NO COMMENTARIES AS TO WHO ORCHSTRATED THE CRIME.

No extreme safety measures on the streets of Minsk have been introduced so far. The police are on duty by the polling stations in full compliance with the law. No armed forces, riot police, tanks were spotted in the streets of the Belarusian capita or in the outskirts. The law-enforcing agencies understand perfectly well that the regime’s days are numbered and no extreme measures can help Lukashenko to retain power. Minister of the Interior Naumov denounced the information about dispatching interior troops, armoured forces and defense forces. Naumov underlined that “not a single soldier have left the territory of the encampment”.

The attack on the Belarusian Internet sites continues. We can say with full certainty now that not a single site covering the Belarusian elections on-line, cannot be reached from Belarus. To the sites blocked earlier (Charter 97, Radio Freedom, Nasha Svaboda newspaper, Belarussian Business Newspaper, Belarussian Newspaper), some more sites added: the site of the civil initiative “Independent Observance”, that distributes information on the mass violations of the electoral code, BelaPAN agency site, Radio Ratsya site, a site of the single democratic candidate Vladimir Goncharik.

Arrest of the Grodno coordinator of ZUBR resistance movement was carried out today. The man was forcefully taken for KGB interrogation and is still held there in custody.
As we previously reported, two more ZUBRs were detained in Mogilev. One of them, as it turned out, is charged with defaming the president for his action “The burial of Luka”. Nobody knows for certain how long they will keep these people under lock.

In Minsk polling station #23, located at the school #89, there happened another incident, testifying that the authorities unleashed mass falsification of the vote. Two men in leather jackets walked into the station right during voting procedures. They started throwing stacks of ballots, which they derived from a huge bag, inside the ballot boxes. One of the criminals was detained by observer Kirienko. However, deputy head of the commission Turin ordered to set the wrongdoer free. The fact of violation was documented and signed by all witnessing sides.

At the polling station #30 in Smolevichi police arrested observer from “Independent Observation” Roman Buravkov. The man was found guilty of filing protocols over eight violations, committed during the ballot procedures.

At the polling station #22 in Zhodino (military site) there has finished presidential voting. Just like in many other cases a huge number of votes were added to Lukashenko – 406, while Goncharik and Gaidukevich received 200 and 2 respectively.

The attack on the Belarusian Internet sites continues. We can say precisely now that not a single site covering the Belarussian elections on-line, cannot be reached from Belarus. To the sites blocked earlier (Charter 97, Radio Freedom, Nasha Svaboda newspaper, Belarussian Business Newspaper, Belarussian Newspaper), some more sites added: the site of the civil initiative “Independent Observance”, that distributes information on the mass violations of the electoral code, BelaPAN agency site, Radio Racyja site, a site of the single democratic candidate Vladimir Goncharik.

At the 75th polling station of the Moskovsky district of Brest the journalists from the Moscow Liberal information center found an unsealed ballot box for preliminary voting. The reporters photographed it, pointing at the fact of blatant violation of legislation to the chair of the electoral commission, who reacted to the occurrence in the most absurd way – she accused journalists of opening the box! The observers filed a violation protocol. Simultaneously with that member of the Brest regional electoral committee Nikolai Demenchuk was casting his ballot there and saw everything.

122 observers out of the overall 350 were removed by 11a.m. from the precinct stations of Grodno. These were mostly the observers from Vesna and Lev Sapega human rights centers. Chairs of the electoral commissions explain their decisions by CEC-initiated deprivation of Vesna accreditations. In the case with Sapega foundation they note that observers, representing it, have no proper membership certificate. Meantime, BelaPAN was told by the member of the Sapega’s Grodno affiliate Viktor Sazonov that in the organization’s statutory document there’s no provision, stipulating the obligatory membership certificate requirement. Sazonov added that Lev Sapega people are removed in mass numbers from throughout the region.

The turnout throughout Belarus reached 60%, while in some regimes it surpassed that level. Therefore, at the absolutely all polling stations one can consider the elections valid. The only place, where the turnout stays below 50%, is the capital Minsk.

TV-6 and other media outlets resumed their halted broadcasting from Minsk through the “MIR” company’s satellite. According to the clarified information there occurred a minor breakage of the transmitter. The technicians have already fixed it.

On September 9 non-governmental human rights defending organization “Viesna” lodged a complaint to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Belarus. The CEC verdict, stating that the minutes of the Council of the Human Rights Protection Center “Viesna” are not valid, is called unjustified, as no motives for such verdict were given. “This verdict is unjustified and illegal, limits the constitutional rights of the citizens and of legal entities for monitoring election campaign,” – the document claims.

There emerged data on the results of voting at closed precinct stations, including military units, pre-trial penitentiaries and hospitals. It gets clear that the authorities don’t bother to make their lies at least look trustworthy. The falsification results are monstrous – in Brest city hospital (polling station #57) 6 people reportedly voted for Gaidukevich, 18 – for Goncharik and 95 – for Lukashenko. At the 58th Brest station 2% of all voters chose Gaidukevich, 0% - Goncharik and 98% - Lukashenko. At the Mogilev 150th station (military unit 5523) Gaidukevich got 2%, Lukashenko 98% and Goncharik 0%. At the 115th station of Mogilev (town hospital) Goncharik gathered 84 votes, Gaidukevich – 34 and Lukashenko – 450.

Problems with sending video materials to Belarus were incurred by some foreign channels, which use “MIR” satellite to transmit their coverage outside. TV-6 channels just reported that instead of being in central Minsk to broadcast from there, they got to operate from the yard of the Belarusian TV-center. TV-6 correspondent was standing in his news report in front of some garages. He said that KGB agents appeared at “MIR”, declaring that they halt the tower’s operation.

At approximately 1p.m. September 9 the Belarusian provider monopolist “Beltelecom” blocked the access of Belarusian users to political sites, which highlight on-line the election’s course – Charter’97 (www.charter97.org), radio “Svaboda” (www.svaboda.org), and newspaper “Nasha Svaboda” (www.svaboda.com).

The activism of the voters is reportedly astonishing (around 30% turnout by 10a.m.; 42,53% by 12 o’clock – CEC) says CEC. 32,97% of voters cast their ballots in Minsk, while in the rest of the regions it fluctuates between 40-45%. According to CEC secretary Nikolai Lozovik, in one hour time the turnout will reach 50% in one hour, while after the ballot the election will be announced valid. In other words, 70% turnout is guaranteed. In this case Lukashenko is losing to the unique candidate with 10% gap, conclude the experts from the Independent institute of the Central and Eastern European states. If so, the democratic candidate will get roughly 54%, while the incumbent – only 42%. With 80% turnout Lukashenko suffers a crushing defeat, gathering only 37%.

Spouse of the unique candidate from wide public coalition Julia Goncharik told the journalist that “she’s ready to become the first lady” and that “she’s convinced that her husband will do a lot of good for Belarus”. Goncharik himself told the press at the polling station that he’s in high spirits and declined to foretell the outcome of today’s poll: “I don’t feel like fancying right now. It is more important, however, that Belarusian residents overcome their fear and show up at the poll.” Goncharik stated that tonight he’d meet with the voters near the presidential residence and wait right there for the announcement of results. The politician claims that he’s aware that they deployed military contingent near Minsk and he doesn’t rule out the possibility of enforced dissolution of the meeting.

BDG correspondent was told by the Minister of the Interior Vladimir Naumov that no heavy military machinery will be brought into Minsk downtown to break up mass turbulence. When asked about the number of law-enforcers on guard of public order throughout the country, Naumov said that one only needs to multiply 640 stations by 4. Overall, Naumov considers the situation calm. At the same time he added that he knows about the Youth Front planned actions and that any moment the riot police reinforcement may get dispatched.

As a result of the yesterday’s CEC ruling over the impossibility of participation in the election monitoring of Vesna and Lev Sapega monitors, 22 polling stations out of the total 29 in the Slonim district and 21 out of 28 in Slonim town were left without observers. According to the leader of local observation headquarters Kuchinsky, the observers were denied registration and asked to leave the poll. The state commission members referred to the CEC document, faxed yesterday to them from Minsk.

“Polling station #43 in the Sovietsky district of Minsk is located in the gymnasium #171 in Gamarnika str. 7. My deceased mother-in-law Bartoshko Mariya wasn’t removed from the list of voters, although last week my wife notified the election commission of her demise.

At all the polling stations in Mogilyov the reporters who came to monitor the elections, were demanded to show not only credentials of a journalist, but also special clearances. In that paper it must be indicated that election observation is the task of the newspaper’s editorial office. The majority of the regional newspapers were not informed about such procedure. That`s why the greater part of the journalists had to leave polling stations in half an hour after the voting started. The same situation with journalists was noticed in Gomel.

By 10.30a.m. over 52% of Oktyabsky district residents cast their votes, 51% - in Svetlogorsk district. 9 Vesna observers, barred from observation, passed over the complaint to the procuracy. The Svetlogorsk district prosecutor M.Prus, having admitted the report, said that “he doesn’t have enough power to oppose Ermoshina”. Final outcomes on pre-voting in Svetlogorsk: 19% turnout at 30 polling stations.

CEC declared that by 10a.m. 28,2% of citizens cast their votes in Belarus. The figure is absolutely unreal, for the climax of voting usually befalls on 12 or afternoon. According to the CEC 26,43% of citizens voted in the Brest region, 25,73% in Vitebsk, 32,70% in Gomel, 27,52% in Grodno, 30,38% in Minsk, 35,10% in Mogilev, 21,35% in Minsk city.

At the moment Vesna human rights center observers, recording mass violations of electoral legislation, submitted 98 complaints to the district procuracies, 65 – to regional, 35 – to the national procuracy, 11 – to courts, 84 – to CEC, 78 to regional executive committees, 95 – to district committees etc. Only 2 complaints were forwarded to the Cabinet and same number to the president.

An outrageous violation of the electoral code was detected by the independent monitors in Smorgon and Rechitsa. In Smorgon the observers witnessed how ballot-boxes were taken out from one of the polling stations. The monitors phoned up to the police and the public prosecutor’s office immediately. In the presence of witnesses the school building, where the polling station is situated, was unlocked. There was no ballot-box there. It appeared only at 6 a.m. The head of this commission refused to comment on the fact of removing the ballot-box with the ballots from the polling station.

Observer from the human rights center Petr Snegursky faced legal action. Snegursky was falsely accused on trumped-up charges of violating art.192 of the Criminal Code (election falsification). Remarkably, this article can only be applied to state officials, not observers. As is know, the procuracy already sanctioned his arrest. At the moment Petr Snegursky has gone into hiding.

A total of 10.21 percent of the registered voters cast their ballots on September 4, 5, 6 and 7, the first four days of early voting in Belarus, presidential election, Valery Yurevich, press secretary of the central election commission, told BelaPAN on Saturday. The Independent Observation group, which is conducting a parallel vote tabulation, reports that some 16 percent of all voters cast their ballots over the five days of early voting period. This figure was cited by Mecheslav Grib, one of the leaders of the parallel vote tabulation. Just as in 1996, the mass insertion of ballots into the boxes occurred a day before the voting – one day before they only reported of 7% of voters.

September 8 night the Central Electoral Commission recognized illegitimate the mandates of the observers from the Lev Sapega Foundation. The reason for such decision, says CEC, was the absence of lists, confirming the membership of the observers in the Lev Sapega Foundation. Mecheslav Grib, a coordinator of independent observation, claims that around 9 thousand people will monitor Belarusian elections September 9 morning.

Election office of the unique candidate Vladimir Goncharik and his press-center move into the building of the Palace of Culture of trade unions, located right on the Oktyabrskaya square of Minsk. Now we have every ground to visit the office of the unique candidate in the Oktyabrskaya square at 8.05p.m. in order to wait together for the results of elections and watch the sunrise in the new Belarus.

US President George Bush the Junior called to support the human rights and democracy struggle in Belarus: “I’m calling upon all delegates to support the people of Belarus, who are fighting for the fundamental human rights and freedoms, for which many nations had also fought in the past,” – said George Bush in his address to the participants of the 3rd conference of rightwing parties of Central and Eastern Europe in Tallinn. The key topics of the conference were – cooperation in security sphere and enlargement of membership in NATO and EU. US president George Bush’s address will be voiced at the September 9 conference on Sunday.

Last pre-election action of Vladimir Goncharik took place yesterday in the park of the “50th anniversary of October revolution” in Minsk. Goncharik’s office was informed that overnight Sept. 8-9 the authorities plot a mass substitution of ballots in the boxes, reports Radio Svaboda.

BDG correspondent reported that ahead of elections in Mogilev region police detained two activists of the unregistered movement ZUBR. From one of them, resident of the Belynichi town, they confiscated stickers in a search at his house. This activist was detained for 15 days upon suspicion that he’s an alleged organizer of an unsanctioned rally “Burial of Luka” in Lukashenko’s hometown Shklov. The activist may face criminal charges under article “Disgracing president’s honor and dignity”.

Overnight September 8-9 KGB operatives searched the Grodno affiliate of the Belarusian Popular Front. The search lasted for two hours from 10p.m. and into midnight. According to the preliminary information they detained a few people on the spot. At the moment there’s no connection with the BPF office in Grodno. The procuracy search warrant reads that the search is carried out within the framework of criminal lawsuit on the attempted overthrow of the existing regime.

The work of the independent “Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta” (Belarussian Business Newspaper) web-site providing on-line coverage of the presidential elections is purposely disrupted. The domain name bdg.by is situated in the .by zone, which is controlled from the inside of the country. Now the site of the newspaper is working unsteadily.

547 foreign journalists from more than 30 countries applied for registration to cover the presidential elections, BDG informs. Records holder among them is Russia (more than 120 journalists) and the USA (more than 70 journalists). Compare with 250 journalists accredited at the ‘parliament elections’ in 2000 in Belarus.

Postmen from the Partyzansky district of Minsk were told to deliver to people’s mail-boxes special issues of the “Sovetskaya Belorussiya” dedicated to Lukashenko’s propaganda. BelaPAN was told by one of the postmen, who wished to remain incognito, that September 4 and 5 50 bags of “SB” special issues (36-45 thousand) were brought into the post office alongside with ordinary correspondence.

Friday issue of the newspaper “Vitebskiye Delovye Novosti” never saw light. The publishing house staff were looking for an excuse under which to deny publishing services to the newspaper, which paid for them in advance. At first, they would say that the press machine is overloaded. Afterwards, they offered to change the newspapers imposition. But even after they urgently re-imposed it, the workers of the publishing house would still reject to print the paper. The major materials of the issue were an article about Goncharik’s pilgrimage to Vitebsk region, as well as the report by the regional coordinator of the unique candidate, in which he spoke of the secret sides of the current electoral campaign.

September 8 night Belarusian TV and radio in breach of the Constitution and the Electoral Code, which guarantee equal rights to all candidates, broadcast seven-minute long Alexander Lukashenko’s address to voters.

According to the local coordinators of the interior observation “over the period of state-run preliminary voting the system of public control incurred great losses”. Dozens of observers under various pretexts, sometimes via application of provocations, were removed from the electoral commissions’ disposition; some were psychologically pressured into quitting the job.

The Belarusian Helsinki Committee made an objection to the Central Election Committee’s declaration about invalidity of commission of the more than three thousands monitors at the presidential elections. BHC stresses that the resolutions of the organizing bodies of the non-governmental institutions can be considered invalid only by the court. CEC of the Republic of Belarus have no authority for this.