Authorities want Five Plus to register :: Charter'97 :: News

The Belarusian Ministry of Justice has ordered three member parties of the Five plus opposition coalition to register their alliance.

The United Civic Party (UCP), Belarusian Popular Front and Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada have been given until August 15 to apply for registration. They have been warned that their alliance will be considered “a flagrant violation of the law” unless they fail comply.
The ministry suggested that the parties stop participating in the alliance activities until its registration.

Officials cited the Ozhegov dictionary, an established authority on the Russian language, saying that “coalition” means essentially the same as “association,” whereas under Belarusian laws, an association is subject to mandatory registration.

Some UCP members joined the Five Plus, not the whole party, so in legal terms, the UCP is not part of the coalition, UCP leader Anatoly Lebedko commented to BelaPAN on Monday.

“The format of the coalition is much broader than just the representation of five or six parties: it includes thousands on thousands of people from other organizations,” he added.

Mr. Lebedko dismissed the ministry’s order as an attempt to divert the opposition’s attention from the upcoming parliamentary elections.

“Those who want the alliance to register, what are they thinking about? It’s pointless. We’ve been unable to register a single cell in any of the regions for a year and neither of the new parties have been able to get registered lately. And they are telling us to file registration documents within a month. We will not do that. That is not a legal requirement.”

Mr. Lebedko said the Five Plus would not suspend its activities.

Sergei Kalyakin, leader of the Belarusian Party of Communists, said his organization had received no warnings, referring to the order as “nonsense.”

“The coalition is not composed of parties. The Five Plus is the idea, it means five steps forward.”