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Ballot-access signature collection stage starts

The nomination groups of the 17 contenders left in the presidential race may start collecting ballot-access signatures on September 30. The groups will be allowed to collect voters' signatures until October 30, BelaPAN reports.

Speaking to reporters earlier this week, Lidziya Yarmoshyna, head of the central election commission, promised that the groups would enjoy "as much comfortable conditions as possible."

“I can proudly say that local authorities’ decisions to significantly limit the number of places where signatures may be gathered have been reviewed or are being reviewed,” the official said, promising that the list of places unauthorized for the activity would be very short.

She said that the election commission, for instance, had pushed for the removal of the ban on underground passages. “Given the rainy weather, the collection of signatures in such places is feasible,” she said.

Ms. Yarmoshyna said that the activity had been allowed in front of railroad and bus stations, retail markets and shopping centers. In Minsk, Kastrychnitskaya, Victory and Independence Squares are on the list of banned places.

Gathering signatures is prohibited within 200 meters of the building of the Presidential Administration and within 50 meters of the buildings of prosecutor’s offices, courts and other governmental institutions.

A presidential contender must produce at least 100,000 valid voter signatures to obtain access to the ballot.

The nomination group of construction engineer Pyotr Barysaw comprises 114 people; of Syarhey Haydukevich, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, 10,443 people; of Yury Hlushakow, deputy chairman of the Belarusian Party of the Greens, 244 people; of unemployed Syarhey Ivanow 129 people; of Ryhor Kastusyow, deputy chairman of the Belarusian Popular Front, 1,306 people; of nuclear physicist Ivan Kulikow 107 people; of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka 8,403 people; of Ales Mikhalevich, a former deputy chairman of the Belarusian Popular Front, 1,795 people; of Uladzimir Nyaklyayew, leader of the "Tell the Truth!" campaign, 3,271 people; of sole entrepreneur Uladzimir Pravalski 187 people; of Vital Rymashewski, co-chairman of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party 1,700 people; of Yaraslaw Ramanchuk, deputy chairman of the United Civic Party, 1,465 people; of Syarhey Ryzhow, an executive of a fruit and vegetable company in Vitsyebsk, 123 people; of Andrey Sannikaw, a former deputy foreign minister who leads an opposition group called European Belarus, 2,003 people; of Mikalay Statkevich, leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party "Narodnaya Hramada," 1,547 people; of Viktar Tsyareshchanka, chairman of the Council of the Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprise, 1,301 people; of Dzmitry Uss, director general of a company called Trivium, 1,354 people.

Nearly all of the contenders said that their nomination groups were capable of collecting the required number of ballot-access signatures.