Nominees into Local Councils Pressured into Withdrawing Their Candidacies :: Charter'97 :: News

On January 29-30 there take place throughout the country the meetings of the district electoral commissions for registering candidates for the deputies of the local councils. They finish verification of documents, declarations and various legal and bureaucratic formalities. The final outcomes of registration and full lists of candidates will be made known by January 31 at the soonest. However, from different corners of Belarus there emanate data about the exertion of moral pressure on candidates by the local authorities and directors’ of companies. They don’t scruple to use any means to achieve their goal…

Brest regional branch of the public association “Vesna” human rights center received a range of complaints over the violation of citizens’ rights, directly connected with the electoral campaign.

For instance, on January 17 technician from Brest Oleg Dydyshko was summoned to the professional committee. There they started asking him where he was born, where he works and what kind of relations he has in his family. At the end, deputy director of his plant for personnel and employment Pavluk pledged that he would personally intervene in Oleg’s election campaign and advised him to think one more time about the withdrawal of candidacy.

On January 20 a teacher of the secondary school #30 of Brest Tatiana Drozdova was delivered on the personal vehicle of the school’s headmaster to the head of the Moskovsky district committee Zhilich, who said that given the woman agrees to lift her candidacy, she would personally assist her in becoming a school principal in the future. When the lady refused to abstain from balloting, they told her that “she must not oppose such a bright and outstanding candidate as Bogdanovich”.

Local leaderships use the dirtiest techniques, such as threats and blackmails. If they have no formal grounds to get rid of the “wrong” candidate, they told him to give up on his own and threaten if he declines to do so.