Opposition Alliance Vows to Field Parliamentary Candidates in Each District

2004-07-21

BPC leader Sergei Kalyakin told journalists that Five Plus will field two candidates in each district so that the first-choice nominee can be replaced by the back-up one if needed. According to Kalyakin, Five Plus's parties will not have any candidate quotas, and nominees will be selected solely on the basis of their popularity in each particular district. The same day the Central Election Commission approved the borders of all 110 electoral districts. The average number of registered voters in one district is nearly 65,000.

The Popular Coalition "Five Plus" has a bundle of problem the authorities insist on the coalition's registration, deprive it of the legal address and give a notice to the parties themselves.

On July 14 at the press conference Belarusian Minister of Justice Victor Golovanov said that the Popular Coalition 'Five Plus" should register before mid August, otherwise, any of its activities will be considered a flagrant violation of the law.

At the press conference, held on July 15, the leaders of political parties, the initiators of Five Plus, were perplexed by the minister's statement. "We have nothing to register. We have founded neither a unit nor a coalition. The alliance Five Plus was initiated to collect signatures for the platform 'Five Steps to a Better Life'. I was one of the first to sign the program as I share all its ideas. How can one register an idea?" wondered Sergey Kalyakin.

Stanislav Shushkevich, chairman of the Belarusian Social-Democratic Party Gromada, is of the same opinion. Furthermore, he alluded that "the Ministry of Justice is often mistaken in its wordings. First, none of the party bodies is a part of the coalition. Second, the parties haven't established any associations or unions. Third, the definition "coalition" doesn't exist in the Belarusian legislation. So there are no legal grounds for registration."

It means that Five Plus is a public formation and not a party organization. And the name Five Plus doesn't refer to activists of the five parties that make part of the coalition, as originally there were six parties that resolved to uphold a public initiative. And Plus doesn't mean representatives of the civic organizations that joined the coalition. Five stands for the coalition's platform "Five Steps To a Better Life". And Plus symbolizes that other people may join the coalition and make their own steps towards a better life," Sergey Kalyakin explained.

Today Five Plus's list of deputy candidates is completed but it is still open for substitutes. "We were pleased to uphold the initiative of Nikolay Statkevich, chairman of the Belarusian Social-Democratic Party, to coordinate our forces during the pre-election campaign. We are even ready to put his party representatives on Five Plus's list of candidates if they are proved to be better and stronger than our candidates. At the same time I want to note that I see only two lists of candidates now - from Five Plus and from the authorities. Only our coalition and the authorities have addressed the Belarusians with the programs. No other lists or statements have been made public," Chairperson of the United Civil Party Anatoly Lebedko said.

The coalition expects to win two victories at the elections. "Our main objective, Anatoly Lebedko explained, is to change the atmosphere in the society. Sociological polling reveals that the present authorities are unpopular with the Belarusians. We must give them an alternative. It is clear that the election campaign will be tough, without any rules. But if our candidates have 70-80% of the people's support (and we have the candidates that can do it), then they will be able to join the parliament even under the present conditions.

"We hope to win all 110 seats in the parliament. Otherwise, what is the point to start it all," Sergey Kalyakin made an optimistic statement.

The party representatives support the action of the parliamentary group Respublika to sum up the results of Alexander Lukashenko's 10 year office which is scheduled for 21July. The party won't make any statements concerning the action, though. Journalists were told that every member of the party is free to decide whether to participate or not to participate in the action. The party leaders have already resolved to uphold the action and they will be glad to see their supporters there. "We are not the organizers of the action. But it is ten years since Alexander Lukashenko was elected the Belarusian president. We should look at his pre-election programs to assess what was promised and what was done," Sergey Kalyakin believes.

The coalition's attitude to participating in the action is admittedly conditioned by their negative experience: the opposition parties were given a notice from the Ministry of Justice for the alleged staging of a street action of solidarity with the newspaper Narodnaya Volya. "All parties are going to lodge a complaint against the notice in the court. There are things that don't need party's decisions. It was a free will of our activists to express their support to the newspaper Narodnaya Volya," said Vintsuk Vecherko, the leader of the Belarusian Popular Front.