Private Printing Press Under Threat of Closure for Printing Leaflets of Oppositional Candidates

On September 28 the Top Type printing press was visited by representatives of the economic crimes control department. The company management believes that such interest from the law-enforcement bodies is not a mere coincidence.

The official reason for the check-up was that the printing press had started to print election leaflets before the Central Election Commission transferred the money according to the appropriate invoices. The company started to print leaflets because the candidates needed campaign materials. Now it turns out that this was a violation of the law. The company director Eduard Hurbo says: “How long will it take CEC to transfer the money? I don’t know. Many years ago we printed leaflets for Navasiad. Then CEC transferred the money in a 4 or 6 weeks. But at least Navasiad had his leaflets”
Four candidates have placed their order to publish leaflets in Top Type: Sviatlana Karalova, Alaksei Karol, Aleh Volchak and Henadz Ananyew. The director of the enterprise believes that this way the authorities are trying to interfere with campaigning of some candidates.