UDF will not withdraw candidates

21.09.2008. Tags: elections-2008, United democratic forces.
Source: naviny.by.

UDF will not withdraw candidates

On September 21st the Political Council of the United Democratic Forces took place in Minsk. UDF participation in the parliamentary election 2008 was on the agenda.

The UDF Political Council decided not to withdraw its candidates. “There will be no organized withdrawal of candidates representing the United Democratic Forces”, -- UCP leader Anatol Liabedzka told BelaPAN.

According to him, if a UDF candidate drops out from the race, he or she reacts to a certain situation in the district. The politician claimed that was what five UCP candidates running in Minsk did. Stanislau Bahdankevich, Alexander Dabravolski, Valiantsina Palevikova, Katsiaryna Malasayeva, and Hanna Yahorava withdrew their candidacies because of obstacles in producing their campaign materials.

Remaining the participants of the election process, the United Democratic Forces intend to fight for the possibility to monitor the vote count on the Election Day, The final statement passed by the Political Council says.

The document states that the authorities refused to include the UDF representatives in precinct election commissions, to organize debates among candidates on the issues interesting for the voters, and to ratify the convention “About standards of democratic elections, election rights and freedoms of CIS states”.

In conjunction with that the Political Council states the “practice of holding all recent election campaigns is aimed not at electing but appointing MPs”, and confirms its decision about “non-recognition of the elections to the Chamber of Representatives fair and democratic”.

At the last stages of the election campaign the UDF decided to concentrate efforts on organizing monitoring of the vote count, collecting evidence of falsification, and explaining the reasons which do not make it possible to recognize the election results fair and legitimate.

In the election districts where there are no democratic candidates, the Political Council recommends the local UDF structures and boycott supporters to promote non-participation of voters in the election.

Besides that, the Political Council urges the voters to organize protest actions September 28th against non-inclusion of UDF representatives in the commissions and falsification the voting results.