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A new wave of opposition candidates led the protests this summer to prevent Belarusian leader Lukashenko, 65, from being reelected for another term.
The Central Election Commission refused to register the two main opposition candidates, alleging rule violations due to incorrectly completed income statements and an insufficient number of collected citizen signatures.
The commission unanimously decided not to register as candidate A. Lukashenko’s main rival, former banker V. Babaryka, 56, who was arrested in June for alleged financial crimes.
Another popular opposition figure, the former Belarusian ambassador to the United States and former head of the high-tech park, Valery Cepkala, 55, has also been denied registration.
Former head of the collective farm, Lukashenko, led Belarus for 26 years and will run for the sixth term in the August 9 elections.
In addition to him, four more candidates will run: former parliamentarian Ana Kanopackaja, president of the Belarusian social democrat Hramada Sergei Cherechen, president of the public association Andre the truth Andrei Dmitriev and wife of the popular blogger Sergei Tikhanyovsky Svetlana Tikhanyovskaya.
Elections 9 million The population is expanding despite the spread of the coronavirus. Belarus has confirmed more than 65 thousand. cases of COVID-19 coronavirus infection, but Mr. Lukashenko refused to impose a strict quarantine.
“The strongest candidates eliminated”
In Belarus, many of Lukashenko’s critics and rivals have been arrested this summer, and popular opposition figures have faced huge obstacles in running for the next election, observers say. V. Babaryka was considered the strongest potential opponent.
“The government eliminated the strongest candidates and left the weakest,” Valerijus Karbalevičius, a policy reviewer for the Belarusian editorial board of Radio Free Europe / Radio Freedom (RFE / RL), told AFP.
According to him, a real fight would be possible only if the remaining opposition candidates chose a person from their ranks to participate in the elections so as not to disperse the votes.
“It just came to our attention then. The action was taken exactly as was in the government’s interest,” added V. Karbalevičius.
The head of the Central Electoral Commission, Lidija Yermošina, said that V. Babaryka’s initiative group managed to raise the necessary 100,000. Voting firms that support it.
However, he read a letter from the State Control Committee alleging that Babaryka belonged to an “organized criminal group” and that in 2018 he did not declare more than 4 million. dollars in income.
The lawyer representing V. Babaryka told the commission that these charges were part of a criminal case against him, which had not yet been heard.
L. Yermoshina also said that V. Babaryka used funds from a foreign organization. Foreign state aid The Central Election Commission considers the participation of the employees of the Belgazprombank bank, whose shareholders are the Russian gas company Gazprom and its controlled Gazprombank, in the initiative group of V. Babaryka.
A high-ranking Belarusian official claimed that Babaryka was complicit in the Moscow “puppeteers”.
V. Babaryka is incarcerated in the prison of the State Security Committee (KGB).
The Central Election Commission also failed to register V. Cepkala, the leading opposition candidate released, who participated in the summer protests. The reason was that L. Yermoshina pointed out the insufficient number of valid citizens’ signatures and that the income statement was incorrectly completed.
Lukashenko, a candidate, said he would not carry out a campaign through the state media, which already covered his activities in detail.
“Stop the roach!”
Ms. Tichanovskaya, 37, was registered by the Commission after her candidacy after her husband was prohibited from running for president.
Tichanovsky, 41, called Lukashenko a cockroach, and his campaign slogan was “Stop the cockroach!” His supporters waved slippers during protests, which are often used to kill these insects.
Tichanovsky was accused of organizing a serious violation of public order and was not allowed to stand as a candidate. He is in custody and, if convicted, will face a custodial sentence.
Amhnyovsky and Babaryk have been recognized by prisoners of conscience as Amnesty International.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), an international observer of elections and war, has not declared any election in Belarus free and fair since 1995.
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