Central Election Commission Insults Candidates. Lidya Yarmoshyna Threatens Siarhei Salash with Criminal Charges and Calls Him a Scold

On 17 August Central Election Commission considered a complaint filed by Siarhei Salash. Salash is running for the parliament in Barysaw. The Central Election Commission rejected his complaint. He complained about the fact that his first initiative group had not been registered. During the hearing Salash spoke about the facts of pressure on members of his initiative group.
Siarhei Salash explains: “I was very emotional. It irritated Yarmoshyna, and she called me a “scold”. On of the CEC members asked me “not to start an election war, because an election is not a war but a fair competition”. I expected such result of the hearing. My first initiative group of 80 members was rejected registration. Yarmoshyna suggested CEC should vote for sending my case to prosecutor to institute a criminal case against me. She insisted I should be charged with libeling Barysaw district election commission. CEC members got nervous; they didn’t know what to do. Then chair of Barysaw district election commission # 77 Vasil Barannik stood up and said: “Don’t do anything with him. We’ll work it out ourselves”. Today I realized that CEC head Lidya Yarmoshyna is ill-mannered, she can’t listen to an opponent. But they could see during the hearing that I was not afraid and was ready to fight till the end”.