European coalition “Free Belarus” Proposes Workable Plan of Uniting :: Charter'97 :: News

Planned consultations between representatives of the democratic forces took were held today in Minsk. The European coalition “Free Belarus” put forward a proposal on uniting democratic forces of Belarus and joint actions during the parliamentary elections in 2004.

Proposals of the European coalition “Free Belarus” For Union of the Democratic Forces of Belarus and Joint Actions During Parliamentary Elections in 2004:

1. Common Brand
With the aim of victory of the democratic forces at the parliamentary elections it is planned to create one democratic union under common title “Democratic Congress “Our Belarus”.

2. Common Monitoring
For effective control of election process it is necessary to have common coordinated nomination of the representatives of democratic parties and civil organizations to election committees, to create common system of monitoring and carrying out campaign “For honest and just elections!”

3. European Choice
Democratic congress “Our Belarus” announces Belarus’ joining the European Union its strategic goal.

4. Common List of Candidates
Participants of the Democratic congress “Our Belarus” decide to have agreed-on candidatures in constituencies. Final forming of common list of candidates of the Democratic congress “Our Belarus” is to take place after their registration by election committees.

5. Common Protection of Democratic Candidates and Results of Elections
Participants of the Democratic congress “Our Belarus” undertake to advocate interests of democratic candidates in every constituency jointly. In case of pressure on candidates, illegal refusal to register them, or withdrawal of a candidate after registration, and in the case of falsifying election results, members of the Democratic congress “Our Belarus” commit themselves to take appropriate legal measures together.

6. Participants of the Democratic Congress “Our Belarus”
Participants of the Democratic congress “Our Belarus” are democratic election unions.

Coordinator of the European Coalition "Free Belarus" Andrei Sannokov tells about the results of the today’s talks:

- I think that the consultations were rather productive, the proposals on two directions of work have been declared: on participation of democratic forces in election committees and on organization of election observation. Groups have been created for detailed study of different problems. They are to discuss technical questions as well as suggested conceptual ideas.

The European Coalition "Free Belarus" has put forward its proposals on uniting democratic forces, as we believe that the technical work has a secondary importance, and the main thing is concrete definition of the election campaign goals, methods to create a common list of candidates and protection of candidates. In our proposals we tried to take into consideration the ideas of the Five Plus and other coalitions and groups. To our opinion, the real union of democratic forces of Belarus is imperative, and on the basis of this union we are to develop a strategy of carrying out an election campaign. We kept in mind Five Plus’ interest in creation of the common list of candidates. However, to my opinion, its final forming should take place after registration of democratic candidates. Lets recall presidential elections of 2001. There were many candidates, there was the five, which got bigger later. But only two oppositional candidates were registered. Others did not succeed to collect signatures. Not to repeat the mistakes of the past we offer to announce the common list after registration of the candidates, and before the registration we should join forces in protection of strong personalities, who could become appropriate representatives of democratic forces in the Parliament.