Pointless Election Took Place In Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

The deputy speaker of the Supreme Soviet, the chairman of the United Civil Party Anatoly Lebedko, at the made a speech on the sitting of the EC Parliamentary Assembly on September 26. “When I say ‘elections’, this word evokes certain associations in your mind. But they have nothing in common with the events taken place in Belarus from September 4 to 9. It was not a voting, but a hard-line political campaign without any rules. The words ‘victor’, ‘loser’ cannot be used to put into words the situation during the campaign. The election farce cannot be won or lost by opposition”, - stated the head of the delegation of the Supreme Soviet at the PACE session. The full text of the speech is follows.

“Mister Chairman! Dear Colleagues!

The sovereign Belarus knows two presidential campaigns. In 1994 Alexander .Lukashenko became a president of the country according to the will of the majority of the electorate. In 2001 was appointed a ruler by a board of vote counters. Several thousands of people, who were specially selected and tutored, have ‘chosen’ Lukashenko using the technique of notorious Josef Stalin: “No matter how they vote, it’s important who and how counts votes”. In this situation it would be no surprise for anybody in Belarus if the Central Election Commission declared Lukashenko’s victory by as much as 101 percent of the vote, not by 76 percent as it was stated. Not election, but ballot count has made Lukashenko winner.

There were practically no representatives of democratic parties among more than hundred thousand of the local election commissions’ members. Besides, more than three thousands of the independent monitors were refused accreditation in the last moment, as a result there were no valid monitoring at half of the polling stations.

When I say ‘elections’, this word evokes certain associations in your mind. But they have nothing in common with the events taken place in Belarus from September 4 to 9. It was not a voting, but a hard-line political campaign without any rules. The words ‘victor’, ‘loser’ cannot be used to put into words the situation during the campaign. The election farce cannot be won or lost by opposition. Election and dictatorship, even if dictatorship is in velvet and lace, are incompatible.

For the political opposition Lukashenko is an illegitimate ruler, a politically and legally incompetent head of state.

An influential Econmist magazine characterized the election campaign as “pointless election”. Senseless is the most exact word for this event. Election is a movement onward, a solving of some problems. However on September 10 Belarus remained an authoritarian state with its disregard for law, with the same bunch problems and lack of prospective.

“Elections” are over, but political repressions continue. According to preliminary data, about ten criminal actions were brought up against regime’s opponents. Hundreds of campaign activists were subject to administrative and psychological pressure. People are fired, students are expelled. The quantity of law breaches during election campaign and after it were hardly placed on one thousand pages, filed by independent monitors of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee. Soon we shall acquaint you with the full list of the people who were persecuted by the regime.

Independent press was politically harassed too. The regional newspaper Pahonya is on the verge of liquidation and closure. Political game with the weekly “Svobodnye Novosti” is carried on. The authorities want to turn it to one more newspaper advertising Lukashenko.

Dear colleagues, we have an impression that Europe is tired of Lukashenko, that it feels discomfort that there are no means, no mechanisms of positive influence on Belarusian regime. But we must not forget that the European Council is a spring, a cradle of human rights. There cannot be compromises about this question. We cannot forget about prisoner of conscience Andrei Klimov, about political assassinations and abductions of the regime opponents. We welcome the willingness of Europe to widen contacts with civil society and different political forces. But we cannot imagine contacts with those who are involved in ‘loud cases’ in Belarus. As the wide world community accuses Ben Laden in organizing terrorist attacks in America, the wide civil coalition charges Lukashenko with organizing opponents annihilation.

We are against self-isolation of Belarus from the world community. Belarussian opposition always was unfailingly in favour of integration of Belarus to the world political, economical and humanitarian space. There is an adequate legal base for a step-to-step strategy. I mean the principles of the Council of Europe, four requirements of the world community and PACE resolution passed in January of the last year.

Political opposition shares the spirit and essence of PACE statement “On Situation In Belarus” of September 25, 2001. It can be considered as concrete actions in accordance with the step-to-step strategy.

Thank you for your attention.

Strasbourg, September 26, 2001.”