Opposition retreats from boycott idea

By Kiryl PAZNYAK, commentator

Although all previous attempts to boycott elections were not supported by most voters, some opposition parties considered withdrawing their nominees from the local election race.

The Conservative Christian Party (CCP) was the first to announce that it will ignore the elections, followed by the Belarusian Social Democratic Party "Hramada" (BSDP), which threatened to pull out of the race in early December.

Although it was months before that, its leader, Alyaksandr Kazulin, cautioned democratically-minded politicians against participating in the elections called by an illegitimate president, while Stanislaw Shushkevich, chairman of the Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada (BSDH), said that "Only fools can participate in these elections."

Strangely enough, both the BSDP and BSDH initially fielded nominees, but the BSDP withdrew in the long run.

"When making that decision, we took into consideration the obstacles that our contenders and members of their nomination groups encountered while trying to obtain registration for the groups and collecting ballot-access signatures," said Anatol Lyawkovich, acting chairman of BSDP. "We also cannot ignore the fact that the leader of our party, Alyaksandr Kazulin, is being held in prison and is on a hunger strike."

Lyawkovich said BSDP contenders would decide when they should withdraw, immediately after their registration for the race or on the polling day. "Everything would depend on the situation in each particular region and candidates' strategy and tactics."

"The party should clearly express its stance," Lyawkovich went on to say. "Lukashenka has officially acknowledged that the 2006 presidential election was rigged and there is no doubt that these elections will also be rigged. The party cannot take part in a game with rules dictated by one person."

The statement follows Lukashenka's news conference for Ukrainian journalists, at which he admitted to rigging this year's presidential election.

Lukashenka, who officially obtained 83 percent of the vote, claimed that he had falsified the election in favor of his rivals. "Yes, we falsified the last election. I have already told the Westerners [about this]. As many as 93.5 percent of voters voted for President Lukashenka. But they said this was not a 'European' result. So we made it 86 [percent]," he said. "The Europeans told us before the election that if there were 'European' figures in the election, they would recognize our election. And we tried to make European figures."

In response to that statement, the United Civic Party (UCP) appealed to members of the National Assembly's House of Representatives to launch an impeachment motion against Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The party also seeks the dismissal of the central election commission.

It would be naïve to expect Representatives to react to the UCP's appeal. But still, it was a welcomed move, unfortunately it comes a bit late, not as an immediate reaction to the statement.

The Belarusian Party of Communists (BPC) also advised its members to pull out at a special conference in early December.

"Firstly, Lukashenka has recently announced that the authorities had rigged the 2006 presidential election," Syarhey Kalyakin, leader of the BPC commented. "Secondly, the past stages of the present election campaign have shown that the authorities are just behaving in the same manner as before. Not a single delegate from opposition parties has been included in election commissions. This is a farce and we cannot allow ourselves to participate in this deception of our voters."

"We'll collect ballot-access signatures and hand them in," Kalyakin added. "We have support among the public. More than 70,000 signatures have been given for our candidates, but the BPC does not recommend participating in this farce."

The BPC and BSDP have been forming a left-wing alliance, and the move proves that the parties coordinate their actions.

The Belarusian Popular Front (BPF) and the UCP also consider withdrawing their candidates. It would be a logical step, since both do not regard the election as free and fair. Both, however, vowed to use the campaign for reaching out to the masses.

The boycott threats may prompt the authorities to ease pressure on a handful of opposition contenders in order to keep them in the race, which could create an impression of a contested election.

On the other hand, without effective means of communication the opposition parties will find it difficult to raise awareness of the boycott. Therefore, it cannot affect the turnout significantly.

The boycott would be a sign of unity and solidarity of the opposition. It may be a better option than having several hundred candidates losing an unfair race. Authorities, as usual, would try to represent it as an indication of weakness and the lack of ideas on the part of the opposition.

The most recent developments show that opposition leaders have retreated from the boycott idea. They say that a boycott may be wrongly interpreted. In particular, UCP Chairman Anatol Lyabedzka has said, “It is impossible to boycott what does not exist. Long before the start of the election campaign, we had clearly and unambiguously declared that there could be no elections under the present conditions. Moreover, the coalition had determined the aims and purposes of its ‘Local Elections’ campaign and the form of its participation. We should not boycott the political campaign, as this would be harmful to us. Because its objective is not only to elect the delegates to the [Second] Congress [of Pro-democratic Forces] but also to establish a nationwide dialogue and contacts with the voter. In addition, the boycott scenario creates conditions for [authorities’] propaganda tricks. They could say that opponents of the government are afraid of the public, have nothing to say to people and, actually, prefer to go abroad rather than travel around Belarus.”

According to Lyabedzka, at its last meeting, the Political Council of United Pro-democratic Forces made things clear. “Firstly, there is no strict order to boycott but only a soft recommendation,” he said. “Secondly, this is not the stance of the BPC leadership. Thirdly, which is the most important, the leader of pro-democratic Communists, Syarhey Kalyakin, confirmed that there could be no boycott of the ‘Local Elections’ campaign. The party remains within the framework of the general agreement and abides by each of its provisions. So the issue is closed.”