Small businesses launch campaign "Government without Lukashenka" and say they will strive for the current head of the country to be withdrawn from the presidential elections.

The campaign is organized by several activists of the business movement, says Radio Liberty. The released statement says that during his term as the president Lukashenka has repeatedly violated the laws of the country. These violations, according to the document, make his powers illegitimate. One of the campaign initiators Ihar Liednik says:
“As regards the campaign “Government without Lukashenka", our society, unfortunately, did not consider the legality of Lukashenka staying in power. In 1996 he added two years to his term without holding any elections.
Then in 2004 he conducted an illegal referendum, which he used to cancel the constitutional restrictions on the presidential term. We view these actions as abuse of power aimed at retaining it in an unconstitutional manner. As regards the inaction in the case of the disappeared people, this is also inaction of a person in a public office. We launch this campaign on behalf of all businessmen in Belarus".
Mr Liednik said that letters regarding the violation by Lukashenka of the Belarusian legislation will be sent on behalf of the businessmen to the procurator's office, the Constitutional Court and Central Election Committee.
The campaign “Government without Lukashenka”, according to its authors, seeks to defend the rights of the businessmen to a legitimate president. Under a legitimate president, they believe, the businessmen would not suffer damage from the imperfect business regulations. Mr. Liednik thinks that all of the candidates currently standing in elections must pay attention to the businessmen's initiative: "We must raise this issue to the pretenders standing in elections together with Lukashenka. In essence, their participation underscores the principle of legal equality. They give Lukashenka the right to continue as the president. Because we know what kind of elections these are going to be, we know of the pressure applied to people as signatures are collected. At the end the authorities will declare that Lukashenka won and this would serve to legitimize his power for many years to come”.