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Belarusian Christian Democracy launches election boycott campaign

Belarusian Christian Democracy (BCD) has launched a campaign for boycotting the House of Representatives elections scheduled for September, BCD Co-chairman Vital Rymashewski announced Monday at a news conference in Minsk.

The campaign will not end when the elections are over but will be part of BCD’s 2012 general political campaign, said Mr. Rymashewski, a candidate in Belarus’ 2010 presidential election.

One of the main objectives of the campaign is to increase public support for pro-democracy opposition forces, including BCD, Mr. Rymashewski noted. “At present we know that there are a great many people who don’t support the government, but at the same time they don’t support the opposition either,” he said.

Other important objectives of the campaign are deligitimizing “the process that authorities call elections and ensuring the conducting of free and fair elections and the release of the political prisoners, Mr. Rymashewski said.

“The main task that the pro-democracy forces have to fulfill is to show who is able to be independent of the authorities and stand up to the Lukashenka regime, not to have an impressive election platform and field a large number of known names,” he said. “This is what is expected by opposition activists and those who may be disappointed in pro-democracy opposition forces.” //BelaPAN