Polatsk: Belarusization at a separate election constituency?

In Polatsk, representatives of the Belarusian Party of Leftists Free World had to fill the blanks of applications for registration of their candidacies for the elections in the local Soviets of Deputies of the 26th Convocation, because representatives of the constituency stated that the blanks should be composed in the Belarusian language.

’We phoned to Vitsebsk for a consultation and were told that there were no such provisions in the law. The blanks were filled in Russian, one of the two state languages,’ said Mikalai Sharstsiuk, Chairperson of the Polatsk branch of Free World. ‘The commission also unlawfully demanded from us to present photos of our candidates for the Vitsebsk oblast Soviet of Deputies. However, we didn’t manage to prove our right and had to fill the blanks in Belarusian and bring photos.’

Mikhail Sharstsiuk and his colleagues didn’t manage to find what the legal grounds for such demands of the constituency commission were.

Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections