BelaPAN poll indicates that 44 percent of Minsk residents voted for Lukashenko, 30 percent for Goncharik

2001-09-14 18:10:00

Minsk, 14 September. Forty-four percent of the Minsk residents who told BelaPAN pollsters that they had taken part in the recent presidential election said that they had voted for incumbent Aleksandr Lukashenko as against 30 percent for Vladimir Goncharik and 5 percent for Sergei Gaidukevich. Nine percent refused to disclose their choice, and 12 percent of the respondents indicated that they had voted against all the three candidates. BelaPAN polled 500 Minsk residents between September 10 and 12. The above-cited percentages were calculated on the basis of the 80 percent who gave an affirmative answer to the question whether they had cast their ballot in the election. According to the central election commission's data, Mr. Lukashenko gained 57.37 percent of the vote in the Belarusian capital city whereas Mr. Goncharik 30.5 percent, and Mr. Gaidukevich 3.37 percent. Seven percent of the Minsk voters reportedly voted against all the candidates. In the BelaPAN poll, 19 percent of those who said that they had taken part in the election noted that they had done that during the early voting period between September 4 and 8. Electoral officials declined to give the figures of the five-day early voting in Minsk. Asked whether they decided to vote before the main polling day of their own free will or they were forced, 47 percent of the "pre-voters" in the poll said that they had done it on their own initiative. Thirty-seven percent said that they had been told about the possibility of early voting, but nobody had forced them. Fifteen percent pointed out that they had been forced to vote before the main polling day (September 9). One percent found it difficult to answer the question.