The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for 19 Apr 2010

19.04.2010 Hrodna candidates banned to hold pickets in populous places

Considering the low amount of locations for holding pre-election pickets with declarative principle, Hrodna United Civil Party candidates Yury Istomin, Dzmitry Bandarchuk, Iryna skrabutan and Natallia Komar addressed the city executive committee with an application for holding pickets in a number of populous places.

19.04.2010 Smaliavichy district official mudslinging opposition candidate

According to a representative of the Radio-Electronic Industry Independent Trade Union’s Minsk regional office Mikalai Pakhabau, chair of Usiazhy village executive committee and chair of the local council Uladzimir Liutko deliberately distorted information on independent candidate Aleh Skokau at a meeting with voters in the village of Khotseneva, Smaliavichy district, on 15 April.

19.04.2010 Pro-state candidates ignore decision by Baranavichy town authorities

Candidates Siarhei Naurotski, Yury Hramakouski and Mikalai Shyrko violate decision #379 of 12 February 2010 by Baranavichy Town Executive Committee, by posting their election posters in locations banned by the authorities, local observers report.

19.04.2010 BCD candidate illegally charged and threatened with expulsion from university

Yauhen Vaskovich, journalist of the ‘Babruiski kurier’ newspaper and Belarusian Christian Democracy candidate in the local council elections, was arrested by the police for waving the national white-red-white flag at the hockey match at ‘Babruisk Arena’ on 18 April.

19.04.2010 Human rights activist demands respect for Constitution from Constitutional Court

Minsk businessman Siarhei Ustsinau addressed the Constitutional Court with a demand to respect the Belarusian Constitution by delivering a judgment on the equality of imprisoned persons to receive parcels and packages.

19.04.2010 Hlybokaye voters receive leaflets of pro-state candidate by post

Hlybokaye pro-democratic candidates keep encountering numerous obstacles in their campaigning activities, say local human rights activists. The candidates representing the unregistered Belarusian Christian Democracy Party were ordered to remove the eight-pointed star (popular Belarusian national symbol) from their election posters.

19.04.2010 BPF member quits election commission in Baranavichy

The only representative of the Belarusian Popular Front in Baranavichy officially declared his departure from election commission #29, referring to the futility of his participation on the commission, after it became known that the election in the constituency, just like in the overwhelming majority of other constituencies in the town of Baranavichy, would be non-alternative, with only one pro-government loyal candidate running for the town council seat.

19.04.2010 Verkhniadzvinsk voters receive information on candidates with delay

Article 45 of the Electoral Code requires that the information materials with the candidates’ bios should be posted outside the polling stations not later than 14 days before the day of the vote. However, the posters did not appear in the town of Verkhniadzvinsk, Vitsebsk region, until 16 April, after repeated demands by Ms. Valiantsina Kudlatskaya, member of the Belarusian Social-Democratic Party ‘Hramada’, running for the district council.

19.04.2010 Youth activist Finkevich fined

Today, on 19 April Judge Khoma of Minsk Leninski Court fined the Young Belarus activist Artur Finkevich BYR 17,500 for participating in a picket of support for the Vaukavysk entrepreneur Mikalai Autukhovich staged outside the building of the Belarusian Supreme Court on 16 April, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports.

19.04.2010 Potash king declares car only, election commissions trust him

The office of the Minsk region state-owned newspaper ‘Minskaya prauda’ was phoned by a Salihorsk resident, who was indignant at the fact that the only property declared by Valery Kiryenka, head manager of the Belaruskali major enterprise, running for Minsk Regional Council, was a car. At the same time, his annual income amounts to BYR 156,000,000.

19.04.2010 International Report Demands Radical Reform of Belarus Media

Today, on 19 April international media and press freedom organisations issued " For Free and Fair Media in Belarus", a report calling for far reaching reforms of the media in Belarus.