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As many as 18,809 people elected to local soviets

Belarus’ March 18-23 local elections resulted in the election of a total of 18,809 people to the country’s 1,328 local soviets (councils), the central election commission reported on Monday.

According to the commission, only seven out of the 18,816 seats in local soviets were no filled. In particular, there were no candidates in four electoral districts. In three districts with only one candidate on the ballot, the candidates did not receive the required number of votes.

There were only some 22,000 candidates for the 18,816 seats and there was only one candidate on the ballot in 88 percent of all districts.

“There are very few people willing to take up certain responsibility and work for no pay,” Lidziya Yarmoshyna, head of the central election commission, said in a televised interview on Sunday night.

Those who call the elections dull because there was no competition could have proposed their own candidacies, Ms. Yarmoshyna noted. “We would have registered you as candidates and you would have taken part in the race on an equal footing with others,” she said.

According to Ms. Yarmoshyna, the people who were candidates for village soviets were those whom local authorities had talked into running in the elections. //BelaPAN