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Withdrawal of opposition candidates will not affect elections, top election official says

If opposition parties withdraw their candidates as they have promised, this will not have a significant effect on the election process, Lidziya Yarmoshyna, head of the central election commission, told reporters in Minsk on Thursday.

“One should hardly say that they [withdrawals] will change the state of affairs,” Ms. Yarmoshyna said. “It is more appropriate to talk about competition
between candidates representing the authorities and certain independent candidates.”

According to her, candidates representing opposition parties are unable to influence the choice of voters considering the findings of opinion polls that are available to the central election commission. //BelaPAN