Homel: Piotr Kuzniatsou’s initiative group not registered again

29.07.2008. Tags: elections-2008, Homel.

The decision not to register Piotr Kuzniatsou’s initiative group again was made by Homel-Centralny district election commission # 33 on Friday, July 25th. The reason was the refusal of two initiative group members to participate in the process. The commission states it has the appropriate statements from these two people. However, they failed to provide the documents to Kuzniatsou for either reading or copying.

The reasons why the team members wrote such statement are still unknown. One girl’s phone is shut off. The second girl just doesn’t pick up.

- I had a strong agreement with those people, and their refusal was very unexpected, -- Piotr Kuzniatsou, UDF candidate, says. I don’t exclude the possibility of pressure on them. But there are no reasons to deny registration to my initiative group. The commission interprets the law arbitrarily. My group consists of 53 people, and they need 46 people to refuse to be in my team to not register my initiative group. That is why I also sent a complaint to the Central Election Commission.

We learned about that decision made by the district commission on Monday. On Friday the commission secretary informed observer Yury Varonezhtsau that all initiative groups which had applied for registration were registered.

Three initiative groups are registered in this district in Homel: Piotr Barysau (UCP member, who is not on the UDF list), Zmitser Husakou (BSDP) and Alexander Shauko (the incumbent MP).

Let us remind the readers, there are no UDF representatives in the district election commission. The candidature of Zinaida Shumilina was turned down without any reasons.

Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections