BELAPAN LAUNCHES ELECTION SITE: INITIAL COMMENT

2001-06-11

Ladies and Gentlemen,

BelaPAN Information Company has launched this site to help you in following the 2001 presidential campaign in Belarus. We promise you timely and reliable information, balanced analysis and a wide range of opinions on the campaign.

The Election Day - September 9 - is only eleven weeks away. Twenty-two initiative groups started collecting signatures on June 21 for the nomination of their candidates. To get registered, a candidate needs at least 100,000 signatures in his/her support.

Many analysts say that Belarus' authoritarian leader, Aleksandr Lukashenko, is "destined" to win this year. Although opinion polls show that most people are dissatisfied with the current regime, there are indeed many reasons to consider Lukashenko as the obvious favorite. So far there are no alternative political figures who would compare to him in popularity - mainly because of his complete monopoly on Belarus' main media. What is even more important, the executive branch controls the election commissions and therefore the vote count. Those who followed the parliamentary elections last year can recall weird things that were happening, for example, with the voter turnout.

And yet I would not agree with those who suggest that the opposition has no chances and should use this election only as training for further campaigns. Election campaigns all around the world have changed public opinions and brought unexpected results in places where everything seemed insured against surprises. Besides, as in sports, only those political teams that fight at peak capacity in every important game can ever hope to win.

Not long ago I had to argue with those who said that Belarus' national soccer team could not fight for more than the second place from the bottom in its World Cup qualifying group. Now the chances are high for Belarus to be three steps higher and to qualify for the finals. Our fans will see the next soccer battle only on September 1, when Belarus plays Ukraine in Minsk. But the political tournament is already here, and it will move on without stop. If we considered the results of this tournament predestined, we would not have started this project.

Stay with us,

Alex Znatkevich, site editor.