Bialynichy: signatures for pro-governmental candidates collected during working hours
The process of nomination of candidates to the Bialynichy District Council and the Mahiliou Regional Council is going on quite actively. In particular, Head of the Mahiliou Regional branch of the National Bank of Belarus and acting Deputy Chairman of the Mahiliou Regional Council Raisa Lychkovskaya was nominated a candidate for the Mahiliou Regional Council of the 27 Convocation.
A number of labor collectives also nominated candidates for the Bialybichy District Council, most of whom are officials of different ranks and specialists from organizations and enterprises of the region. For instance, the labor collective of "Novaya Druts" nominated its deputy director Uladzimir Kanavalau, who used to be Chairman of Klimavichy District Executive Committee. In 2005 Mr. Kanavalau was sentenced to four years in prison for abuse of power...
Members of initiative groups continue to collect signatures for nomination of candidates for deputies of councils of different levels. As noted by civil society activists of the Bialynichy district, the core of the initiative groups of pro-government candidates are employees of enterprises and institutions and workers of executive committees. The norm is to collect signatures for pro-government candidates during working hours at workplaces directly at enterprises and organizations. Social activists also point out that while collecting signatures for candidates for district and village councils members of initiative groups of pro-government candidates often violate the rules of filling in the signature sheets, collecting only the signatures of citizens for the nomination of candidates, and putting the dates in their own hand. It is quite interesting whether members of election commissions will pay attention to this fact while verifying the signature sheets.
All in all, 43 electoral teams have been registered by the Bialynichy District Election Commission. 113 more teams have been registered by rural territorial election commissions.
"Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections"
