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Central election commission's proposals for amending Electoral Code are inconsistent with regulations, politician says

The central election commission's proposals for amending the Electoral Code run counter to national regulations, Syarhey Kalyakin, chairman of the "Spravedlivy Mir" (Just World) Belarusian Party of the Left, said during a round-table conference in Minsk on Wednesday.

For example, the proposal that national-level NGOs with a membership of more than 1000 should be granted the right to nominate candidates for the House of Representatives and local soviets is inconsistent with the law governing NGOs, Mr. Kalyakin said.

In addition, political organizations in Belarus are not allowed to have a presence at companies and other institutions, which means that an NGO like the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus would have to close all its grass-roots chapters if the proposed amendments were enacted, he said.

The proposal that campaigning for an election boycott should be governed by the Mass Events Law and not the Electoral Code is also ill-conceived, Mr. Kalyakin said. The United Civic Party's candidates whose addresses to voters were not broadcast because they contained calls for boycotting September's parliamentary poll may now go to court because the central commission has recognized that there was nothing wrong with their addresses, he said.

Mr. Kalyakin also criticized proposals not to provide public funds to candidates for printing their campaign materials and to abandon debates between candidates on the radio. //BelaPAN