5 September 2008
Central election commission upholds denial of registration as parliamentary candidate for deputy chairman of Belarusian Popular Front

The central election commission on Thursday upheld a denial of registration as a parliamentary candidate for Vintsuk Vyachorka, first deputy chairman of the Belarusian Popular Front (BPF).

The election commission in District No. 107 in Minsk claimed that more than 15 percent of the examined ballot-access signatures for Mr. Vyachorka had been found defective.

The politician was not present at Thursday's meeting of the central election commission. According to its secretary, Mikalay Lazavik, Mr. Vyachorka had said in a telephone conversation with him that he would not be able to attend for personal reasons and would accept any decision.

BPF member Yury Karetnikaw’s complaint was turned down on the same grounds.

Mr. Karetnikaw, who planned to run in District No. 99 in Minsk, came to the meeting with written statements by several voters confirming that they had given ballot-access signatures to him and dated the signatures in their own hand.

A "report by experts" gave the district election commission sufficient grounds to deny registration to Mr. Karetnikaw, Mr. Lazavik said. "It’s also unclear how Karentikaw obtained those statements," he added.
Messrs. Vyachorka and Karetnikaw are on the list of parliamentary nominees of the United Pro-democratic Forces.

On September 4, the central election commission considered 23 complaints and reversed the denial of registration for three people, namely, Volha Shakhanava, a temporarily unemployed person without party affiliation; former lawmaker Uladzimir Navasyad and Vasil Karankevich, an instructor at a road construction school in Homyel who is a member of the pro-government Belaya Rus association. They were placed on the ballot in District No. 92 in Minsk, District No. 94 in Minsk, and District No. 34 in Homyel, respectively. //BelaPAN