Authorities have deprived prominent political and public figures of opportunity to run in elections :: Charter'97 :: News

The preliminary results of the candidate registration stage show that "the Belarusian authorities have deprived prominent political and public figures of the opportunity to run in the elections," says the outlawed Vyasna human rights group.

According to its statement, more than 40 percent of the nominees of pro-democracy opposition parties were denied official registration as parliamentary candidates.

The authorities were openly interfering in the candidate registration process to ensure the election of pro-Lukashenko candidates to the lower chamber, the statement says. "Members of nomination groups and pro-democracy candidates often came under pressure at their place of work, were intimidated and dismissed; pressure was widely applied to voters who had put their signatures and placed their trust in representatives of the country`s pro-democracy forces."

"Pro-democracy political parties that took an active part in the election campaign, especially the ones that had concluded an agreement on joint activities in the framework of public coalitions, also fell under the authorities` pressure," the Vyasna group says.

"All this has already provided grounds to insist that the elections for the National Assembly`s House of Representatives are undemocratic and do not meet the principles of free, fair, transparent elections, and the international standards of organizing and conducting elections," the statement says.