19.04.2010 Human rights activist demands respect for Constitution from Constitutional Court

Minsk businessman Siarhei Ustsinau addressed the Constitutional Court with a demand to respect the Belarusian Constitution by delivering a judgment on the equality of imprisoned persons to receive parcels and packages.

19.04.2010 Hlybokaye voters receive leaflets of pro-state candidate by post

Hlybokaye pro-democratic candidates keep encountering numerous obstacles in their campaigning activities, say local human rights activists. The candidates representing the unregistered Belarusian Christian Democracy Party were ordered to remove the eight-pointed star (popular Belarusian national symbol) from their election posters.

19.04.2010 BPF member quits election commission in Baranavichy

The only representative of the Belarusian Popular Front in Baranavichy officially declared his departure from election commission #29, referring to the futility of his participation on the commission, after it became known that the election in the constituency, just like in the overwhelming majority of other constituencies in the town of Baranavichy, would be non-alternative, with only one pro-government loyal candidate running for the town council seat.

19.04.2010 Verkhniadzvinsk voters receive information on candidates with delay

Article 45 of the Electoral Code requires that the information materials with the candidates’ bios should be posted outside the polling stations not later than 14 days before the day of the vote. However, the posters did not appear in the town of Verkhniadzvinsk, Vitsebsk region, until 16 April, after repeated demands by Ms. Valiantsina Kudlatskaya, member of the Belarusian Social-Democratic Party ‘Hramada’, running for the district council.

19.04.2010 Youth activist Finkevich fined

Today, on 19 April Judge Khoma of Minsk Leninski Court fined the Young Belarus activist Artur Finkevich BYR 17,500 for participating in a picket of support for the Vaukavysk entrepreneur Mikalai Autukhovich staged outside the building of the Belarusian Supreme Court on 16 April, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports.

19.04.2010 Potash king declares car only, election commissions trust him

The office of the Minsk region state-owned newspaper ‘Minskaya prauda’ was phoned by a Salihorsk resident, who was indignant at the fact that the only property declared by Valery Kiryenka, head manager of the Belaruskali major enterprise, running for Minsk Regional Council, was a car. At the same time, his annual income amounts to BYR 156,000,000.

19.04.2010 International Report Demands Radical Reform of Belarus Media

Today, on 19 April international media and press freedom organisations issued " For Free and Fair Media in Belarus", a report calling for far reaching reforms of the media in Belarus.

17.04.2010 Yauhen Afnahel arrested in Supreme Court

The activist of the civil campaign European Belarus was arrested at the trial over Mikalai Autukhovich and Uladzimir Asipenka.

Yauhen Afnahel and other European Belarus activists came to court to express solidarity with the prisoners of conscience. According to witnesses, Afnahel was detained by riot policemen.

17.04.2010 Prosecutor demands to sentence Autukhovich to 20 years of prison

He said that even though charges against Vaukavysk entrepreneurs were not proved in the Supreme Court and were rebutted by witnesses.

Prosecutor Eldar Safarau offers to sentence Mikalai Autukhovich to 20 years of imprisonment, Uladzimir Asipenka and Alyaksandr Laryn -- to 11 years. Mikhail Kazlou - to 3 years, "Radio Svaboda" informs.

17.04.2010 Orsha authorities censure election leaflets

Mikalai Petrushenka, running for the Vitsebsk Regional Council, lodged a complaint with Orsha Town Prosecutor’s Office, after the local publishing house declared his election leaflets could only be printed after being approved by the town executive authorities.

17.04.2010 Baranavichy activist appeals forgery by local election commission at prosecutor’s office

On 16 April Mikalai Charnavus, who was refused registration as a candidate for the Baranavichy Town Council and Brest Regional Council due to ‘fake signatures’ allegedly collected by his campaign team, lodged a complaint with the town’s prosecutor’s office and the Central Election Commission.

17.04.2010 Mazyr authorities gum up campaigns of independent candidates

Candidates Franak Viachorka, running for the Mazyr District Council, and Uladzimir Tseliapun, running for the Homel Regional Council, claim that they were forced to meet their voters outside the building of House of Culture ‘40tth Anniversary of October’, after the premises appeared to be occupied by a film screening.

17.04.2010 Local official orders to strip off BPF Adradzhennie candidate’s posters

Anton Tsydzik, member of the BPF Adradzhennie Party, running for the Mahiliou City Council, reports that all his election posters have been stripped off.

17.04.2010 Mazyr constituency election commission violates work schedule

Mazyr constituency election commission #43 has been repeatedly violating its work schedule, says Uladzimir Tseliapun, running for the Homel Regional Council. The candidate claims that he has repeatedly found the commissioners absent from work, which was reported to the commission’s secretary Ms. Y.M.Pinchuk and later to the Central Election Commission in Minsk.

17.04.2010 Laptop and flash cards seized from local council candidate

Houses of oppositional local council candidate Alyaksandr Zarembyuk and his parents in the town of Masty were searched.

A laptop and other things were searched. As Radio Svaboda reports, Ales Zarembyuk is to visit investigator Pavedaika in the Hrodna region KGB department on Saturday morning. He is called to the department as a suspect.