Bialynichy candidates are sent to Lipavy Hai for campaigning

On 3 January the Bialynichy District Executive Committee adopted two important regulations concerning the campaign for elections to the local councils of 27 Convocation. They regulations were published on the website of the Executive Committee on January 6.

Regulation No. 1-22 determines the places prohibited for picketing for the purpose of collecting voter signatures for nomination of candidates for deputies of local councils. In particular, it is forbidden to hold pickets to collect signatures of voters at a distance of less than 50 meters from the building and inside the buildings of the local executive and administrative bodies, courts, prosecutors' offices, police departments, departments of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the territories organizations ensure the functioning of the population (public transport, companies providing water, heat and energy supply, health facilities, kindergartens, educational and extracurricular institutions), the district center of culture, indoor facilities for trade and public services, cultural institutions.

In fact, the ban on picketing spreads on all more or less crowded places in the town of Bialynichy, which creates some problems for alternative candidates who are going to get nominated as candidates for the local councils. The ruling enters into force on 12 January 2014.

On 3 January the Bialynichy District Executive Committee issued regulation No. 1-23 "On creation of conditions for campaigning candidates for deputies of local Councils of 27 Convocation". According to this document, campaigning leaflets can be placed in the proper places: the buildings where the precinct election commissions are located, information stands in the administrative buildings of the village councils of deputies, shopping, cultural and educational institutions and organizations of the Bialynichy district.

Meetings of candidates with voters in Bialynichy can be held in the district Culture Center, and meetings on the territory of the village councils are to be held in cultural and educational institutions. Outdoors meetings and pickets can be held by the candidates and their proxies in front of the stage in the Lipavy Hai neighnourhood in Bialynichy.

It should be noted that in the recent election campaigns Bialynichy officials have traditionally chosen Lipavy Hai, unfrequented by the locals in wintertime, as the venue for events held by the candidates. Only during the presidential election campaign in 2010, local pro-democracy activists managed to overturn the absurd regulation of the officers of the executive committee, and were allowed to hold pickets elsewhere. Now the executive committee again proposes the candidates to hold their mass events in a totally deserted place, among stray dogs and crows. Regulation No. 1-23 of the Bialynichy District Executive Committee shall take effect on 11 February 2014.