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Nyaklyayew urges top election official to secure equal campaigning conditions for all parliamentary candidates

Former presidential candidate Uladzimir Nyaklyayew has petitioned Lidziya Yarmoshyna, head of the central election commission, to secure equal electioneering conditions for all parliamentary candidates and their campaign aides.

In his petition, the 66-year-old leader of the "Tell the Truth!" movement says that he is a campaign aide of 13 parliamentary candidates but has been prohibited by authorities from participating in their campaign rallies.

The poet-turned-politician may not attend mass events under the terms of his suspended prison sentence, which was given over a post-election street protest staged in Minsk on December 19, 2010.
"But if I am a criminal, why have they registered me as a campaign aide? And if I am a campaign aide, why do they ban me from what I may do under law and must do in accordance with my duties?" Mr. Nyaklyayew wonders in the petition.

He refers to the arrests of "Tell the Truth!" activists Yahor Vinyatski, Pavel Vinahradaw and Alyaksandr Artsybashaw, who are campaign aides of parliamentary candidate Artsyom Lyava.

"They are now arresting opposition candidates' campaign aides. They are about to start arresting the candidates themselves like they did in the presidential election. And you still hope that international organizations will recognize elections held under such conditions as democratic?" Mr. Nyaklyayew wonders.

He stresses that people are reluctant to go to the polls in such an atmosphere.

The politician warns Ms. Yarmoshyna of "inevitable punishment" for vote rigging and says that the central election commission should secure free and fair elections rather than obey orders coming from the Presidential Administration, the police and the Committee for State Security. //BelaPAN