31 July 2008
Central election commission issues rules for campaigning in state media

The central election commission on July 31 issued rules that will govern campaigning for the forthcoming parliamentary elections in the state media.

Under the rules, parliamentary candidates will be entitled to have their election programs published by one of the government-controlled newspaper Zvyazda, Narodnaya Gazeta, Respublika and Belorusskaya Niva. They also will have the right to have it published by a regional or district government-controlled newspaper in addition. A text should not exceed 4,000 characters with spaces.

Candidates will be allowed to make only pre-recorded statements on radio and television.

Those running in Minsk and the Minsk region will be allowed to appear on the Stolitsa radio station and the rest on regional radio stations.

As for pre-recorded television addresses, candidates in Minsk will make them on the Lad channel, candidates in the Minsk region on the STV channel and those in other regions on regional networks.

Addresses will be broadcast from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on radio and from 5:30 p.m. to 18:30 p.m. on television. An address should not exceed five minutes.

The television channels and radio stations will be obliged to run announcements about the schedule of candidates' addresses.

Lidziya Yarmoshyna, chairwoman of the central election commission, told reporters on Thursday that Belarus seems to be the "last country where air time is given free of charge."

She said that campaigning in the media was only a "small part" of a candidate's election campaign.

"Addresses in the media are not enough for its conduct. Candidates should work on their own with voters," she said. //BelaPAN