English

Five nominees of Belarusian Popular Front pull out of parliamentary race

Five parliamentary hopefuls nominated by the Belarusian Popular Front (BPF) have pulled out of the House of Representatives elections in protest against the denial of membership in election commissions for the party's representatives, BPF Deputy Chairman Ihar Lyalkow told reporters on Wednesday.

The Belarusian Popular Front, at its extraordinary convention in Minsk on August 4, nominated 38 members to run in the elections on behalf of the party. The BPF also announced that it would withdraw its contenders from the parliamentary race if its representatives were denied membership on election commissions of all levels on a mass scale.

Five of the party's nominees have withdrawn because there will not be a single BPF representative on the precinct commissions in their electoral districts, Mr. Lyalkow said.

Of the 57 people nominated for membership in district election commissions by the BPF, only 12 have been included in them, he noted. As many as 233 representatives of the BPF and Adradzhenne, an NGO affiliated with the party, were nominated to precinct election commissions, but only 13 of them were granted membership in them, he added. //BelaPAN