Viktar Ivashkevich: amendments to Electoral Code are disguise for West
Amendments to the electoral legislation
will not affect the course of electoral campaigns, the politician is
confident.
The secretary of the Central Election Commission
(CEC) Mikalai Lazavik
has recently said the amendments to the Electoral Code regarding
campaigning and boycotting would be proposed. It will be forbidden to
use government funds to call for a boycott. But it seems to be wrong
to ban calling for a boycott, the CEC secretary thinks.
“The
acting law allows calling for a boycott, but the police arrested
those calling to boycott the 'elections' regardless whether they were
using the government funds or their own money,” Viktar
Ivashkevich, one of the
leaders of the Belarusian opposition, told charter97.org.
According
to the politician, the authorities do not fulfill laws, so amendments
to the legislation have no sense: “The authorities do not observe
all these laws. They act in accordance with political expedience and
orders of high-ranking officials. These amendments to the legislation
do not add anything, but do not deprive it of anything.”
The
CEC suggests that NGOs should propose their candidates on equal
conditions with labor collectives and political parties. Viktar
Ivashkevich thinks the novelty will not change anything: “Some
candidates were proposed in compliance with the acting legislation.
They observe all laws, but the authorities didn't register them in
result. They registered only the candidates they wanted. The
situation will not change. They can introduce any amendments, but
they will do whatever they want. The amendments don't indicate a
tendency to liberalization, they are just a disguise to show liberal
reforms to the western diplomats. The dictatorship is illegal even in
accordance with its laws. Law is an enemy of an official. It will
continue while this system exists. No amendments can change
anything.”