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Belarusian Helsinki Committee leader on registration of candidates for local soviets

The registration of candidates in the coming local elections was a more democratic process than in the previous elections for local soviets and the House of Representatives, Aleh Hulak, chairman of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC), told reporters in Minsk on March 29, BelaPAN reports.

"Nevertheless, there have been problems," he added. "We see that the registration denial rate for opposition contenders was 26 times as high as the overall rate. That is, a discriminatory attitude toward candidates representing pro-democratic parties persists."

He stressed that some potential candidates, their campaign aides and relatives had come under pressure from authorities.

BHC experts have found that "despite certain democratization, the campaign has not been fully free," he noted, adding that the elections were not transparent.

Mr. Hulak criticized the verification of ballot access signatures submitted by soviet hopefuls to district election commissions. "Observers and potential candidates were told that they had no right to attend meetings at which ballot access signatures were verified. Thus they were unable to see to it that equal approaches and justice are secured in the process," Mr. Hulak said.

As many as 25,033 candidates for soviets have been registered across Belarus, with the overall candidate-seat ratio averaging out at 1.1 to one. "On the one hand this is evidence that society does not view local soviets as a true governing body and does not consider the elections to be free," Mr. Hulak said. At the same time, he added, the fact that there is at least one candidate in each district testifies to the government's involvement in the nomination of candidates.

Human rights defender Valyantsin Stefanovich said that 318 soviet hopefuls, or one percent of the total number, had been denied access to the ballot.

"However, if we look at the results of the registration of representatives of opposition political parties, we can see that 90 of the 290 contenders, or 26 percent, have been denied registration. This is a very high percentage," Mr. Stefanovich said.