English

Human rights defender calls for invalidation of registration of Lukashenka’s nomination group

Prominent human rights defender Aleh Volchak has petitioned the Prosecutor General’s Office to invalidate the registration of Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s nomination group over what he describes as violations of the Electoral Code.

As Mr. Volchak, a former investigator with a prosecutor's office, told BelaPAN, he has sent a copy of the petition to the OSCE Office in Minsk.

In the petition, the activist refers to the Electoral Code’s Article 61 that requires an application for the registration of a presidential hopeful's nomination group to be submitted to the central election commission by the hopeful in his or her own person.

The application for the registration of Mr. Lukashenka’s nomination group was submitted to the commission by Education Minister Alyaksandr Radzkow, who heads the group.

Mr. Volchak also notes that a copy of Mr. Lukashenka’s passport attached to the application names August 30, 1954 as his birth date, while the Belarusian leader is known to have moved his birth date forward one day to August 31, 1954 earlier this year.

“A copy of which passport, the old one or the new one with Lukashenka’s altered birth date, was submitted?” the human rights defender wonders in the petition.

He expresses certainty that the violations were sufficient grounds for the election authorities to deny registration to Mr. Lukashenka’s nomination group.

Earlier this week, Lidziya Yarmoshyna, head of the central election commission, denied any violations by Mr. Lukashenka, saying that Mr. Radzkow had produced a written authorization to act on the Belarusian leader’s behalf.