Verification of signatures in support of candidates for president in Mazyr
On 2
November the Mazyr District Election Commission held a sitting to verify the
signatures that had been collected in support of nomination of candidates for
president of the Republic of Belarus. According to the commission Chairperson
Mikhail Pashynski, the commission received signatures in support of 7
candidates.
6,878 signatures were collected in support of A.Lukashenka and all of them were
accepted for consideration, whereas defects were found in the signatures passed
for all other candidates. In particular, the commission found invalid 69 out of
1,732 collected in support of Aliaksei Mikhalevich, 6 out of 349 signatures in
support of Uladzimir Niakliayeu, 19 out of 820 signatures in support of
Yaraslau Ramanchuk, 54 out of 1,170 signatures in support of Vital Rymasheuski,
36 out of 1,281 signatures in support of Andrei Sannikau and 6 out of 801
signatures in support of Viktar Tsiareshchanka.
The head of the district election commission turned the attention of the
commission members that the head of the Mazyr police was given an errand to
draw an expert in criminalistics and workers of the department of citizenship
and migration to verification of the validity of signatures.
According to the observer Uladzimir Tseliapun who attended the sitting, the
secretary of the commission selected 20% of signatures for verification in
advance and passed them to the commission members in a separate room in the
absence of the observer. U.Tseliapun asked the head of the commission to show
him the signatures lists of Lukashenka, Mikhalevich and Tsiareshchanka.
However, the commission let him see only signature lists of Lukashenka, but
refused to show the lists of Mikhalevich and Tsiareshchanka.
Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections