"Cleansing" At Finish :: Charter'97 :: News

Electoral commission of the Moskovsky district of Minsk embarked on Thursday on a real cleansing of the pre-election field from the opposition candidates into the deputies. They paid particular attention to those nominees for the city hall, who, according to the polls, had best chances of qualifying. Among those, who received red light, were deputy chairman of UCP Sergei Alfer and member of the UCP political council Evgeny Lobanovich.

Commission members’ charges to both of them were trumped-up and sounded really provocative. For instance, Lobanovich was dismissed from the race allegedly for the same fault, for which they previously reprimanded him. Apparently, they could formulate no other pretext for getting rid of him. “Even a criminal doesn’t get two sentences for the same felony,” – commented lawyer Lobanovich on the electoral commission’s ruling.

Same morning another member of the UCP Political Council was stripped of the candidate’s status: Svetlana Koroleva was deprived of her registration permit in the Zavodsky district.